In Veerappan’s Footsteps

Selvamani Selvaraj first heard of Veerappan when he was in school. The infamous forest bandit’s luxuriant moustache, his rifle, and the army fatigues made him stand out, as did his attitude of catch me if you can. As did the headlines. “He was part of our pop culture,” says Selvamani, director of Netflix’s new docu-series, The Hunt for Veerappan. He approached Awedacious Originals with what he thought was a movie script till he was told to develop it as a non-fiction documentary. That started him off on a journey which has resulted in 150 hours of shooting across the deep forests once ruled by Veerappan. It is a story that makes you look behind the notoriety, at the poverty that first made him a poacher. The documentary goes behind the obvious polarising views of Veerappan as a brigand/smuggler and folk hero and tries to understand the relationship of humans with the lead character, the forest. Dark, dense, endless, the forest that covers four districts of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, is the star of the series where Selvamani tracks over 42 people who came into contact with Veerappan, including his wife, whom he married when he was 39 and she was 15; the forest officers who tracked him; and the journalists who chronicled his rise and fall. “It was their story to tell,” he says. The documentary also tells the story of the Soliga tribe caught in the middle of the battle between Veerappan and the Special Task Force formed to capture him. Veerappan has long been a subject of fascination for filmmakers such as Ram Gopal Varma, who made Killing Veerappan in 2016. Selvamani is a graduate of BITS Pilani who taught himself filmmaking by watching the work of old masters on his desktop, most prominently Fernando Meirelles’ City of God (2002). He assisted Ang Lee on Life of Pi and Santosh Sivan on I’m Not Sita, two absolute masters. So what is it that makes so many engineers into directors? “We like to solve problems and filmmaking offers many,” says Selvamani. The heavy metal song that plays in the background, by the band Jhanu, is a winner. “I wanted a song that sounded as if the forest was talking to Veerappan and the police in a neutral, evenhanded way. The forest saw them as similar.” He got it.

Playing Elder Statesman

In a sea of six packs, Nassar stood out with his weak hand and diabolical mind as Bijjaladeva in Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017). The film gave the 65-year-old actor a new level of fame, and he would be stopped for selfies in public places, whether in Dubai or Delhi. The actor who plays a mysterious character in Nila Madhab Panda’s extraordinary thriller, The Jengaburu Curse (SonyLIV), based on the indigenous people of Odisha, has played the antagonist in several Tamil and Telugu films. He is recognisable to most film fans from Mani Ratnam’s crossover Tamil hits, Nayakan (1987) and Bombay (1995). But in Hindi cinema, he acquired a fresh lease of life after he was cast as a scientist in Sudhir Mishra’s Serious Men (2020). He has a series of appearances in some Hindi films and series that are coming up, most notably Abhishek Chaubey’s Soup. The speed of contemporary fame astonishes Nassar who grew up in Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu. “Our theatres would get even Tamil hit films only in their second run, a year after their primary release,” he says. “As for Hindi films, we only saw big hits like Aradhana two years after they were released in the north. As for Hollywood films we never saw them,” he adds. The politics of what he endorses with his acting is important for Nassar who is president of South Indian Artistes’ Association. “Whether it is climate change or social harmony, my films should speak the right language,” he adds.

Scene and Heard

What excites critics is not necessarily what excites audiences. Gadar: Ek Prem Katha was released in 2001, the year Lagaan made waves, and made more money than the Aamir Khan movie (₹83 crore vs ₹66 crore). But despite the famous handpump scene and the sound-shattering dialogues, Gadar didn’t receive as much critical scrutiny. Gadar 2, made by the same team, and again starring Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel, has the highest rating on IMDb amongst the most awaited movies or web series, almost double that of Shah Rukh Khan starrer Jawan which releases later, but guess which film is generating more excitement among critics?

BollywoodcinemaNassarSelvamani SelvarajSunny Deol