Fooling in the name of Mahabharata?

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]A[/dropcap]nyone can cheat or confuse people through a public relations exercise and media glare. The latest is the case is in the name of the epic Mahabharata. A few days ago media started reporting that there is a film in titled Mahabharata that is going to be produced in many languages with a whopping cost of Rs.1000 crores ($155 million).

The Producer B R Shetty and the new movie director Shrikumar Menon are well aware that if they gave the name of the novel to the movie in other languages, no one will see it.

The report says that an advertisement movie creator Shrikumar Menon is going to direct a film titled Mahabharata and that the Gulf based business tycoon B R Shetty is going to spend Rs.1000 crores ($155 million) for this multi-language film. The fact is that this film has nothing to do with the epic Mahabharata. This move is based on a novel called ‘Randamoozham’ written by Kerala’s famous novelist M T Vasudevan Nair, popularly known as MT.

‘Randamoozham’, which means second innings or second attempt in English is a novel on the writer’s perspective or analysis of Bhim’s thoughts and portraying Bhim as the best warrior as opposed to Arjuna. It is just a novel and has nothing to do with the epic Mahabharata. This novel is widely appreciated in Kerala. But why name the movie based on this novel as Mahabharata? Why not name the name of the novel – Randamoozham – to the movie too? This is nothing but to fool the people in other languages. People of Kerala only love to see the movie in the name of the novel – Randamoozham – because the novel was a such a popular piece.

The Producer B R Shetty and the new movie director Shrikumar Menon are well aware that if they gave the name of the novel to the movie in other languages, no one will see it. So fool everyone in the name of epic Mahabharat? Will Censor Board give approval to such a farce?

Shrikumar Menon is a well known advertisement maker and promoter of major lobbying and advertisement company known as Push Integrated Communications based in Bangalore. Did Shrikumar Menon use his clout in media to plant this report of making movie in the name of Mahabharata? If it is so, it is really unfair to misuse and fool people in the name of epic Mahabharat.

There is one more thing. What is this Rs.1000 crore ($155 million) production cost for making a film? This seems to be an overhyped cost for producing films. Will this be a case for agencies like Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate to check if someone is over-invoicing to claim tax exemption from their other businesses? Or is someone trying to show loss to clear balance sheets of other business or money laundering in the name of film making, that too in the name of epic Mahabharat? If it is so, then it is unpardonable.
Note:
1. The conversion rate used in this article is 1 USD = 64.65 Rupees.
2. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.