Police officers and politicians from both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are thronging the theatres to understand the truth behind Veerappan's death.
Film maker Ram Gopal Verma's debut Kannada movie, Killing Veerappan, which chronicles the circumstances leading to the death of dreaded forest brigand Veerappan, is creating ripples in south India with the movie receiving rave reviews and thumbs up from the audience. Police officers and politicians from both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are thronging the theatres to understand the truth behind Veerappan's death.
The movie has turned into an Internet sensation with people posting selfies resembling movie's poster. Now, there is a demand from Bollywood to release the Hindi version too. Though K Vijay Kumar, head of the joint Special Task Forces (STF), was widely credited for ending the barbaric reign of Veerappan, in reality, it was another police officer Senthamarai Kannan, who masterminded the downfall of the brigand in 2004.
Killing Veerappan plot is based on Operation Cocoon and the undisclosed secrets that prompted Veerappan to emerge out of the forests to be gunned down by the police. Senthamarai Kannan and Shriya (a civilian) played prominent roles in Veerappan's death and they have been portrayed on the screen. While Kannan continues to work for the Tamil Nadu police, Shriya's identity is not much known. RGV selected Kannada superstar Shivarajkumar, whose father, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award recipient and thespian Dr. Rajkumar (abducted and held hostage by Veerappan in 2000), to play the role of Kannan.
Multilingual actress Parul Yadav is seen in the role of Shriya, who befriends Veerappan's wife Muthulakshmi (Yagna Shetty), to understand more about the brigand and his hideout. The movie is running into packed houses and has already collected over `12 crore in the first three days across Karnataka.
RGV is overwhelmed with the response, "I must say that I am more than satisfied because the story is so well known to Kannadigas and yet they accepted a completely different version from what they so far believed... That speaks about the narrative honesty. Also, it is a kind of a shock to the film industry that a film without songs, heroic fights, comedy, etc, can do commercially so well."
The Telugu and Tamil versions of the movie will be released shortly while the Hindi version will hit the screens later this year.
