Killing Veerappan director-producer Varma talks about his inspiration for the film.
More than 12 years ago, I was producing a film called Let’s Catch Veerappan, which dealt with three amateurs trying to catch Veerappan for the reward. It was to be directed by Shimit Amin, but just as we were about to start shooting, Veerappan was killed. I shelved it thinking there’s no point making a film after he was dead. I toyed with the idea of making a biopic on Veerappan but I gave up the idea.
About a year ago, I heard about Senthamarai Kannan, the policeman who headed the intelligence wing to kill Veerappan. Unlike his predecessors, Kannan’s radically unique idea was to lure him out of the forest. When I heard the details of how that happened, my excitement knew no bounds and it was then that I thought these details should be known to everybody.
Shivarajkumar plays the role of the cop instrumental in the planning that led to Veerappan’s death. I needed a man of that age, look and performance and in addition he’s the son of Rajkumar, who was kidnapped by Veerappan. That was a casting coup because the real life villain is killed by the reel-life hero.
For director AMR Ramesh, who made Attahasa, films are no different from investigative journalism. His next film Game is based loosely on Sunanda Pushkar’s life.
I was following Veerappan since the time he kidnapped Dr Rajkumar in 2000. I was the first director who thought of a film on him. When I was doing Cyanide, Rajkumar was kidnapped and I was the first to go to the forest where I met Veerappan’s aide Kolathur Mani. I came back and met Kempaiah, who was at Rajkumar’s house. I later met the then Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna. The rest is history. I was involved in the action.
In 2002, the politician Nagappa was kidnapped by Veerappan. I met K Vijay Kumar in 2005. He watched my film Cyanide and thought I could do justice to such a subject. I also spent time Senthamarai Kannan and met Kempaiah, Shankar Bidari and the IPS officers who had worked to eliminate Veerappan. I then prepared the script. I am nothing but a journalist. I am accurate 99 per cent and I don’t like taking sides.