- NTR getup wearing skull cap with white kurtha irks Gond community
- Adivasis ultimatum to Rajamouli to change getup or face court case
- Writer Vijayendra Prasad comes up with clarification
Hyderabad: Rajamouli’s upcoming film ‘RRR’ (Roudram, Ranam, Rudhiram) became hot topic in Tollywood circles after NTR’s Bheem teaser was released by the production unit. As soon as teaser hit the market, it enraged the Netizens after they viewed NTR getup with white kurtha and a cap on his skull. They felt that it was a blatant falsehood in the name of history. They never expected this from the ace director Rajamouli who is generally known as non-controversial.
Netizens harsh on Rajamouli
Director Rajamouli was hard hit with tweets on social media for a few days. “Komaram Bheem was a tribal who fought against Razakars during the Nizam period, how you can show him in a Muslim get up?” asked the fans. The attack started right after the release of the teaser and it has been continuously disturbing the unit with unabated posts on social media. “Do we put skullcap on Chatrapathi Shivaji, Maharana Pratap, Guru Gobind Singh for fighting foreign terrorists just as Komaram Bheem rebelled against the Nizam?” tweeted an angry youth.
Objection by Adivasis
The Adivasis felt that komaram Bheem is being shown in poor light and there was no role of a Muslim in the history of the tribal icon. It is a pity to see the criticism turning into a communal issue when a few people on social media projected Komaram Bheem as “Kattar Hindu” adding comments that he doesn’t belong to Adivasi (Tribals). “In fact the very name ‘Bheem’ or Komaram Bheem’ is used by many Gond Tribal clans of Telangana because they considered themselves as descendants of Pandava warrior Bheema through Hidimbi,” wrote a hardcore fan of Komaram Bheem. Still some people claimed that he was a non-Hindu.’ Muslim Gonds did not exist in Telangana,’ he further tweeted. There was no proper response or explanation from the film unit until now since this controversy erupted. They stuck on to their take that the film is a social fiction, but the atmosphere looks to be hot right now with roars from Adivasis and Hindu ideologists objecting to NTR’s getup.
Writer Vijayendra Prasad clarifies
Speaking to English media, writer Vijayendra Prasad, Rajamouli’s father, came up with clarification on NTR skull cap getup in the flick. As per him,” The Nizam lords tried to capture Bhim and chased him. Bhim did so to escape from the police. He dressed as a Muslim youth”.
Vijayender said that there was a reason to show Ram Charan, who played the role of Alluri Seetha Rama Raju, as a cop, and that it would give a surprise to the audience on the silver screen. After Rajamouli decided to make film with two stars, the script for RRR was written, keeping in view the star image and popular expectations from NTR and Ram Charan, the writer said.
