PremiumAll about Sindhoora Lakshmana, the freedom fighter that Darshan’s set to play
Director Tharun Kishore Sudhir will bring the story of Sindhoora Lakshmana to the big screen, produced by Shylaja Nag and B Suresha’s Media House Studio
Last Updated: 10.38 AM, Feb 17, 2024
On Challenging Star Darshan’s birthday on February 16, it was confirmed that one of the Kannada superstar’s upcoming projects would indeed be a biopic on slain freedom fighter Sindhoora Lakshmana, to be directed by Tharun Kishore Sudhir. This was a film that had been announced way back in 2020 with the same director-actor duo, and produced by Umapathy Srinivas Gowda. However, Darshan and Umapathy allegedly had a fall out, following which the project got stalled. In fact, Tharun and Darshan's Kaatera too was supposed to be produced by Umapathy, but later got pushed to Rockline Venkatesh.
The Sindhoora Lakshmana biopic is now back on track and will be backed by Yajamana and Kranti makers Shylaja Nag and B Suresha under their Media House Studio banner. This is said to be #D59 and will take off only after Kariya maker Prem is done with his film produced by KVN Productions. Last evening, Prem announced that the film, which is speculated to be a mythological, will be a 2025 release, so #D59 will likely get started thereafter.
Darshan, who has a special affinity to historical and mythological subjects, will play the title character of Sindhoora Lakshmana, a freedom fighter who was assassinated by the British in 1922. Born to a Kannada-speaking family in Sindhur, which is near the Karnataka-Maharashtra border, Sindhoora Lakshmana became a local Robin Hood of sorts, organizing looting of tax money collected by the British government treasury, which he would then distribute among the people in his village.
Lakshmana was all of 24 when he was shot dead in a sting operation by British forces, who shot him in the head, while at the house of an informant. The story of Sindhoora Lakshmana has found multiple stage adaptations over the years, while a film called Veera Sindhoora Lakshmana was made in 1977 with Basavaraj, KS Ashwath and Tharun’s father Sudhir in pivotal roles.
Lakshmana was said to have quite a towering physique, standing at over 6 and a half feet tall, a physical trait that the Challenging Star fits in well. However, the slain freedom fighter was in his early 20s when he was killed, while Darshan just turned 47 and will need digital de-aging to convincingly pull-off the role.