Reel Drama in Real Life

An actor threatens to jump off a Bangalore theatre roof because his movie was being taken off

This could have been a movie and it would perhaps have run better than the one Harish Raj acted in. On Saturday morning, 30-year-old Harish, a Kannada actor and the director of Gun, landed at Santosh theatre in Bangalore’s Majestic area in a state of frenzy. The theatre had put out an advertisement announcing that a big banner film would be screened there from next week. This meant that Gun, which was playing there, would be taken off.

An argument ensued. Harish, dressed in dark blue jeans and a yellow T-shirt, made the point that he had paid the theatre Rs 7.30 lakh as two weeks’ rental in advance. He was ready to pay more for another two weeks. “I was so happy when I got an opportunity to screen my film here,” he says. The theatre owner’s point is that the movie is an absolute flop. According to a staffer there, “We found that his supporters bought tickets just to show that collections were good. They also issued free passes to hundreds to show the film is running to packed houses.’’

So far, the situation was under control. But Harish then rushed up the stairs. He crossed four floors and perching himself on the edge of the terrace threatened to jump. A huge crowd gathered. A media contingent also materialised.  The next to arrive was the police who went to the terrace and tried to reason with him. Harish responded by brandishing a knife and threatening to cut himself up. He screamed about the injustice meted out to him. In the midst of all this drama, Harish also called the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce President BK Patil asking for help. Patil, shocked at the stunt, did not show him the sympathy he expected and scolded him for “giving Kannada cinema a black mark”. This angered Harish even more. He lashed out at policemen trying to bring him down. One constable was injured on the forehead. But to the credit of the cops, they did manage to overpower him and bring him down.
The police have booked two cases against Harish—one for attempting suicide and another for injuring a policeman. The former attracts imprisonment up to a year while assaulting the cop can get him a maximum of two years.

Later, a more mellow Harish said, “As a responsible person from the film industry, I should not have done this. I apologise to all my fans.”

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