Last week, when music maestro AR Rahman called 2025’s historical blockbuster Chhaava a “divisive" film, he was being historically accurate. Because the core of Chhaava — the story of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj and his brutal torture and execution at the hands of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb — was always meant to be divisive.

Aurangzeb knew what he was doing when he unleashed the full savagery of his anger on Sambhaji before executing him in the most public and humiliating way possible. For someone as obsessed with public image as Aurangzeb — when he became lame towards the end of his life, he made sure a curtain blocked all views of him hobbling to his perch — this was not just a political message. It was deeply personal.

But first, how do we know just what happened to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj after he was captured by Mughal officials? Simple — contemporary chroniclers, Mughal, Maratha and European, have documented Sambhaji’s torture in great detail. Multiple accounts, from the Maasir-i-Alamgiri by Saqi Mustad Khan to Bhimsen’s Tarikh-i-Dilkasha to Manucci’s Storia do Mogor, Futuhat-i-Alamgiri by Ishwardas Nagar and the redoubtable Khafi Khan’s Muntakhab-ul-Lubab, all mention this horrendous event.

Let us see what Mughal official Khafi Khan says about Maharaja Sambhaji’s execution. Aurangzeb, he writes, “gave orders that the tongues of both (Sambhaji and Kavi Kalash) should be cut out, so that they might no longer speak disrespectfully. After that, their eyes were to be torn out. Then, with 10 or 11 other persons, they were to be put to death........

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