Bengaluru: A Kannada feature film that is doing very well at the box office has created a political flurry as it appears to glorify mining baron and former minister from the BJP G Janardhan Reddy who is out on bail in a ₹16,085-crore illegal mining case investigated by the CBI.
The film, Mufti, where top hero Shivrajkumar plays the role of Bhairati Ranagallu, modelled on Janardhan Reddy, has been released just six months ahead of the Karnataka state assembly elections.Political sources confirm that Reddy has been making moves in the last few months and was trying to get back into the political mainstream, which he ruled from 2004 to 2011, when he was arrested over the mining case.
“His negative image is ensuring that even his parent party, the BJP, is keeping away from him, though he was responsible for establishing their first government in the South under BS Yeddyurappa in 2008.The BJP doesn’t need his money now and both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah don’t want damage to their image because of him,” a politician who is closely watching Reddy’s moves told ET.
A 2010 Kannada film Prithvi, with Shivrajkumar’s brother Puneet in the lead, showed the deputy commissioner of Ballari as the hero who dismantled Reddy’s mining empire.In contrast, Mufti, helmed by debutant director M Narthan, appears to be a direct attempt at improving Reddy’s image.
While the first half of the film shows the character Ranagallu only in references, as a vicious dictator, who instills fear, cares a damn for the government and is destroying the environment for his greed, the second half, where a poignant Shivrajkumar dominates the screen, paints him as a charitable do-gooder who suffered at the hands of the government in the past.
Even the hero, a CBI officer, ends up in two minds about arresting him.
The references to Reddy and his lifestyle are glaringly clear all through: Ranagallu supposedly lives in a room which has a golden bedstead and golden furniture, an indication of media reports of the gold taps in Reddy’s bathroom; the fictitious town of Ronapura, where he rules, is dubbed the Republic of Ronapura, while the Justice Santosh Hegde report on illegal mining called Reddy’s operations the Republic of Ballari; Rangallu’s convoy of black SUVs is a clear copy of how Reddy travelled; the shots of the trucks carrying ironore could be stock shots from 2008-09 of Reddy’s Obulapuram mining company’s operations; and Ranagallu travels around in a Bell helicopter, just like Reddy did and to make it more clear, it has a G written on it, for Gali, Reddy’s initial.
“We are influenced by people in real life and the luxury and lifestyle I have shown are based on Janardhan Reddy,” Narthan told ET.“But there is no intent to influence elections. It is just a story I built based on Reddy to show that there can be other shades to the character. Reddy has no connection with this film,” he said.
The film thanks two politicians — BJP MP from Mangaluru Nalin Kumar Kateel and Congress minister and minelord Santosh Lad — at the beginning of the film. Lad said: “I just helped them get permission to shoot in some areas. I have no idea of the story and have no other connection to this film.”
Narthan said Kateel was also thanked only for shooting permissions and denied any political connections or intent in the making.
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