Exclusive! AMR Ramesh on the lookout for a pan-India star to play Shankar Bidari in Veerappan web series

If legal hurdles had not presented themselves time and again, filmmaker AMR Ramesh would have released the first six episodes of his web series on slain forest brigand Veerappan. Ramesh, who has been researching the life and times of Veerappan for well over two decades, had made a Kannada-bilingual Attahasa/Vanayudha on the subject way back in 2013, with actor Kishore playing the bandit. At the time, though, since some of the officials from the Karnataka State Police who had served on the Special Task Force to nab Veerappan were involved in an alleged case of human rights violations, Ramesh had to restrict their side of the story in his film. Although the cops, including Shankar Bidari, were acquitted by the Supreme Court a month before the release of Attahasa, Ramesh’s film was ready for release by then.

Eight years later, Ramesh went on floors with Veerappan: Hunger for Killing, a proposed 20-episode web series on the forest brigand, with Kishore returning to reprise his role. “We have shot and edited the first six episodes of the show, with about 4 and a half hours runtime, which we are looking at screening to a select audience of police officials involved in the operation to capture Veerappan sometime next month. I am currently in discussions with major OTT platforms to present the show to audiences,” said Ramesh, adding, that he is looking at splitting the whole narrative of about 16-18 hours into three seasons, with two of 6 episodes each and the last with 8.

The delay in shooting the rest, he adds, is because he is yet to finalize an actor to play former Karnataka top cop Shankar Bidari. “I need an actor with a pan-India presence. We had approached Manoj Bajpayee, but that did not work out, so we are now in the process of speaking to Randeep Hooda and Madhavan. Hopefully, we will get one of them onboard and can go back to the forest to shoot.,” says the filmmaker, who has got Suresh Oberoi to reprise his role as late matinee idol Dr Rajkumar in the series.

Read also: Exclusive! Veerappan: Hunger For Killing will be a two-part, 20 episode web show, says AMR Ramesh 

In fact, the show will open with the July 2000 abduction of Dr Rajkumar from his farmhouse in his ancestral place, Gajanur, but will then go back to Veerappan’s early days and rise to becoming one of the most dreaded forest brigands. “To make the show interesting to the current generation that may not have heard of Veerappan, the premise follows a criminal psychology student, whose thesis revolves around the bandit. The story is told from her perspective, where at the time of actor Puneeth Rajkumar’s tragic death, she comes across old footage of him talking about his father’s abduction and how that cast a shadow of doubt on him. She then returns to college and begins researching the subject, which is known to be the biggest case of abduction in India. Thereafter, the story will be told in chronological order and Season 1 will end with the entry of Shankar Bidari and team on the STF set up to nab Veerappan,” says Ramesh.

The filmmaker, who had paid Rs 25 lakh as compensation to Veerappan’s widow Muthulakshmi during the time of Attahasa’s release, had been dragged to court yet again by her, but that case has been solved, clearing the path for him to now bring his show to audiences.

Attahasa is available to stream on Disney+Hotstar