A young Allani Sreedhar in his early twenties, captivated by the strong Telangana fervour in B Narsing Rao’s films, was drawn to the story of the tribal leader Komaram Bheem. Driven by the urge to get his story across to people he went ahead, but the film finally released only in 2010, though it bagged two Nandi awards in 1990.
The film Komaram Bheem turned out to be a critical and commercial success. Now, with the Telangana state government announcing Komaram Bheem as a district (carved out of Adilabad district) and the leader’s 115th birth anniversary falling this week, Allani Sreedhar is delighted that the leader is finally getting his due.
As he awaits the release of Chilukuru Balaji (starring Sai Kumar, S P Balasubramanyam) in November, Sreedhar says, “My ultimate dream would be to make Komaram Bheem in Hindi, for wider audience. With Bhaag Milka Bhaag, Bajirao Mastani, Rudrama Devi and others, I think this is a good time for biopics.”
He recalls “It was writer S Pran Rao who readied a rough draft of the script based on Komaram Bheem’s biography by Allam Rajaih and Sahu. “ ”
Working with a shoestring budget, Sreedharneverthless wanted to make the film an ode to the culture of life of Gond tribals. He and his team lived with them for weeks, talked to Sombai, Bheem’s ageing wife and learnt of the leaders’ personality.
Sreedhar says, “When we arranged a screening for the tribals, they were shocked to see their own lives on screen. That I felt was a true fruit of our efforts.”
The film’s journey was choppy. There were no takers for the film; no distributor or producer willing to back it. He conveys that the struggle has a parallel with the Telangana statehood movement, the ups and downs in the process and the ultimate glory.
“Bhupal Reddy, the on-screen Komaram Bheem was always optimistic about the film’s fortune,” Sreedhar says.Even when the film released, the producers revealed they were shocked to see huge crowds.
“Generally when a film releases late, the content does become stale. With Komaram Bheem though, this proved otherwise.”
The filmmaker made a lot of films (including Ragulutunna Bharatham with ANR) and tele-serials in the meanwhile, but Komaram Bheem’s response was the true gratification he ever needed.
“I even told my family that the box of reels are the riches that we possess and that this meant more than money to me.”
