Cast of Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga's dharna at Jantar Mantar

Trying to coincide with the presentation of the Union budget on 28 February, the principal artistes of Revel Films’ Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga like Sanjai Mishra, Pragati Pandey, Disha, Rajnan Chabra along with director Anshul Sharma and producer Ashok Pandey (who had earlier made Phas Gaye Re Obama) and a host of junior artistes participated in a dharna at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on 26 February (2013). The dharna was to express unity with the middle-class over possible increases in prices in the upcoming budget. Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga is a hilarious and satirical take on mehngai (inflation) told through the life of a middle class family from a small city in North India. The family, crushed under the burden of Mehngai tries to deal with it through an ingenious idea not realising the problems they would get entangled into as a result of this idea. In a nutshell, the film is a hilarious journey of this family battling these issues. According to Anshul Sharma the idea to make a film on the subject struck the producer when the price of onions shot up in 2011. “Increase in the prices of onions, which is a staple diet for the large middle class population, had a cascading affect on the budgets of various households. The common man has been hit by the high rate of food inflation.” Commented Sanjai, “The tax-paying middle class is already overburdened. It is high time they got some relief in the Budget.”