Sandalwood goes from real to reel

Truth is stranger than fiction. It is, more often than not, more appealing too. This is perhaps why Sandalwood makers have, of late, taken a fancy to real-life stories and biopics. This year, for instance, films like Bheema Theeradalli (about gangster Chandappa Harijan) and Dandupalya (about the gang by the same name), released to fairly good results at the BO.Many more such films are currently in production.
Kreanthiveera Sangoli Rayanna
Challenging Star Darshan takes on the titular role of Sangoli Rayanna, a freedom fighter from Karnataka and army chief of the kingdom of Kittur at the time of Rani Chennamma. While veteran actor Jayapradha plays Rani Chennamma, this film will see Darshan and Nikitha Thukral onscreen for the first time since their alleged liaison and Darshan���������s incarceration following domestic trouble. The film is also believed to have one of the highest budgets in Sandalwood, at a reported 29 crore.
Edegarike
Director Sumana Kittur���������s upcoming film starring Aditya and Kishore is her take on the lives of the now reformed dons Muthappa Rai and Agni Sridhar. The film, which was announced recently, is based on the eponymous book, written by Sridhar.
Dirty Picture: Silk Sakkath Maga
If the makers of the upcoming Dirty Picture: Silk Sakkath Maga are to be believed, the hit film The Dirty Picture came nowhere close to being a biopic on the late sex siren Silk Smitha. With Pakistani starlet Veena Malik in the lead, director Trishul claims that his Sandalwood film on Smitha will stay true to who and what the actor really was.
Attahasa
A quick look at filmmaker AMR Ramesh���������s filmography and you realize that he prefers bringing real-life stories to the big screen, be it Cyanide (based on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination) or Police Quarters (based on incidents that happened after the Babri Masjid demolition). The director's next venture is a biopic on the slain forest brigand Veerapan, which he intends to release as a Kannada-Tamil bilingual.
Kettavanu
So what if actor Lovely Prem has gone back on his decision to not do loverboy roles and is currently serenading Shriya Saran in a bilingual film? When the actor decided to get all rough and tough, he did so in full earnest, even sporting six pack abs. While one of these films will see the actor play a cop, Kettavanu, says Prem, has him in the role of a well-known rowdy sheeter. ���������I don���������t want to divulge who this film is based on. I���������m sure audiences will figure that out once they see the film,��������� he had told.
Umesh
The latest in the line of biopics is the film Umesh, which is rumoured to be based on the life of former cop and convicted serial killer/rapist Umesh Reddy. While the makers claim that they���������ve drawn only minimal creative references from the real Umesh, the buzz in the industry is that the film will be about the man who allegedly killed several women and has been given the death sentence.
Compiled by Prathibha Joy