Coming soon — Bandit tale in Hindi

BANGALORE, DEC 16: The ‘‘Bandit King’’ is all set to take north India by storm. A Hindi version of a Kannada film, dedicated to the life and times of Veerappan, began taking shape after Kannada matinee idol Raj Kumar was kidnapped. B.B. Nagpal reportedly bought dubbing rights for the movie for an undisclosed amount.

Flashback. Circa 1992. J. Chandulal Jain mustered courage to produce a film on Veerappan. The movie, in which Devaraj played the lead role, was a box-office success. It also bagged two state film awards for best actor and best film. But the Kannadigas weren’t pleased. There were demands that the awards be withdrawn and threats to disrupt its screenings. The movie’s hero, Devaraj, is no new face for Hindi film watchers. Some of his earlier films, Utkarsha and Durga Shakti, have also been dubbed into Hindi. Unlike his earlier movies, however, this time around he is bound to attract a lot of attention. However, Devaraj opposed the move to dub the movie into Hindi. ‘‘Had the producer dubbed this film into Hindi before the unfortunate kidnap episode, I might have been the happiest person. I think this is not the appropriate time for the producer to release the film, when Kannadigas are yet to recuperate from the trauma of the sad episode,’’ he said.

The Kannada version, directed by Ravindranath, was shot around the Male Mahadeshwara Hills, near one of Veerappan’s original hideouts. The cast and crew recall that they always felt an unseen presence during shooting…as if somebody was watching them.

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It is said Veerappan would usually send one of his men to ensure that he was not depicted as a villain in the film. Of course, no one can confirm this. But this wasn’t the only film that the bandit inspired. There was a Tamil one, too Captain Prabhakar, starring Vijaykant. The villain was yet again, Veerappan.

Yet another, the most recent, was hindi film Jungle by Ramgopal Varma, about a forest brigand holding some hostages. Rings a bell? Varma insists his brigand has nothing to do with Veerappan. But people who have seen the film beg to differ. All these apart, ironically, Raj Kumar himself acted in Gandhada Gudi three dacades ago, where he played a forest officer on a mission to capture sandalwood smugglers. Surely he could not have imagined then that one day the roles would be reversed.