Synopsis :
The film, a bilingual directed by Ketan Mehta and produced by Bobby Bedi , is believed to have been made at a whopping budget of Rs.400 million ($9.1 million approximately). The film also has foreign cast including Toby Stephens , Coral Beed and Emily Kent.

Rani Mukherjee plays a prostitute who stirs up Mangal Pandey’s conscience and emotions. Amisha Patel plays a widow.

Set against the backdrop of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, 'The Rising' tells the tale of a heroic sepoy Mangal Pandey (Aamir) who saves the life of a British commanding officer William Gordon (Toby Stephens) in a fierce battle in the Afghan wars of the mid 19th century. Despite the difference in their rank, Mangal and Gordon become good friends.

Their friendship is tested with the arrival of a charming and beautiful young aristocrat, Emily Kent. In the meantime, Gordon saves a beautiful young native girl, Jwala (Amisha), from the funeral pyre of her late husband, and falls in love with her.

Differences arise between Mangal Pandey and Gordon when the controversial new gun cartridges are introduced in the infantry of which Mangal is a part. The new cartridges require soldiers to bite through their greased casing, made of animal fat. And the Indian soldiers in the infantry refuse to use them.

Gordon assures Pandey that the cartridges have no animal fat, but the truth turns out to be the opposite.

Mangal Pandey leads a mutiny against the British, thereby setting off a wave for India’s freedom from its imperialist rulers.