RRR's connection with Bengal & Netaji
Kolkata: Ram Charan became nostalgic when he visited the Chotelal Ki Ghat on a sultry Tuesday morning in Kolkata. Way back in 2013, he was shooting at the exact spot overlooking the historic Howrah Bridge for his Telugu action-comedy film Naayak.
This time, Ram Charan had a brief halt in Kolkata. He was with his RRR director SS Rajamouli and co-actor Jr NTR. With their magnum opus period film RRR releasing worldwide on March 25, they are on a multi-city tour promotions across the country. Of course, Kolkata had to be on the list. RRR has a connection with the state. And that is none other than Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Enthusiastically, the Baahubali director tells us about it. "By now, we know that RRR is based on the story of two legendary freedom fighters Alluri Seetharama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Jr NTR) from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. When Alluri Seetharama Raju fought against the British in the jungles of Andhra Pradesh, he became a legend. But he was eventually killed by the British. Only the people of the state knew the story. The media wasn't active and the story wasn't known across India. Few years later, Netaji came to Visakhapatnam. And then, he told the world about Alluri Seetharama Raju. In his words: "I am proud and privileged to be born in the same land of Alluri Seetharama Raju. So, RRR has a nice connection with Bengal," says Rajamouli. In fact, Jr NTR, who plays Komaram Bheem in RRR didn't know the Netaji story. "I didn't know that Netaji spoke about Alluri Seetharama Raju… this is new for me. Working on RRR has been an experience of a lifetime," says the grandson of the legendary NT Rama Rao. This is not the first time the Baahubali director is in Kolkata though. He also says how he was planning to place RRR in Kolkata, but then shifted the story to Delhi.
Rajamouli is a happy man. After a lot of delay and problems, RRR is finally releasing at the theatres this week in 3D. It was supposed to be released on January 7 but due to Omicron, the makers pushed back the release date, suffering huge losses. Rajamouli adds: "We are so happy that in the recent times, many South Indian films are doing well across the country. I want north Indian films to do well in south. We should become one Indian film industry," he signs off.
