A few die-hard fans of the next Karnataka chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah had come together to announce the launch of a commercial biopic on their favourite leader a few days before the Assembly elections were held.
The biopic was titled Leader Ramaiah, and a poster was also released on the eve of Sri Rama Navami with the tagline “A King Raised By the People”.
The film — being made in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Hindi — will now be in two parts, with Tamil superstar Vijay Sethupathi making an appearance towards the end of Part 1, and playing an extended role in Part 2.
It was initially planned for release on Siddaramaiah’s birthday on 3 August.
Director Sathyaratnam spoke about the ongoing biopic project in an exclusive interview with South First.
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1st schedule shooting
“We have almost completed the first schedule of the movie with a little more than 15 days of shooting pending. We are completing the shoot of the childhood days of Siddaramaiah Sir, and we will soon reveal the actors from the first part. We are planning a big event in the coming days,” said Sathyaratnam.
He added that the film was being produced by Hayath Peera, Gurudutt Kulkarni, Chennappa Halalli and a few others, all of whom are great admirers and followers of Siddaramaiah.
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A love story & three songs
The director went on to share that it the biopic was going to be a completely commercial venture.
“This is a full-fledged commercial venture. It will have all the elements of a commercial film. It will even have a love story, three songs, and all the drama that an audience is used to in a commercial film. But it is solely based on the life of Siddaramaih Sir,” Sathyaratnam said.
Asked about the inclusion of the “love story”, the director explained that he got to learn about an episode from Siddaramaiah’s life during his days as a law student from one of his friends.
“It is going to be a very brief one, and a song is planned around it too. Following the rejection, the biopic moves on with his better half coming into the picture,” the director explained.
Entry into politics
Paryt 1 of the biopic, according to the director, revolves around Siddaramaiah’s childhood days and will end with his entry into politics.
“The first part is about the growth of Siddaramaiah Sir as a person. His days as a law student, then as an advocate. The film will also include his association with the legendary farmers’ leader, MD Nanjundaswamy, the Varuna canal agitation, and his entry into politics,” Sathyaratnam said.
Vijay Sethupathi role in Part 2 of biopic
Confirming that the sensational Tamil actor will be part of the biopic, the director said that Vijay Sethupathi will play a cameo in the first part, which gives the big lead for the sequel.
“Vijay Sethupathi plays a major role in part two of the biopic, but he will also play a cameo at a crucial juncture in the first part of the film. We have several leading artists acting in the film, which we will reveal in the coming days,” he said.
Before signing off, Sathyaratnam points out that Siddaramaiah was initially sceptical about the biopic.
When he explained to the Congress leader that it would be an honest effort, and not lead to any kind of controversies — and that Vijay Sethupathi was acting in the film — he eventually gave them the green signal for the biopic.
