Biopic on former Karnataka CM Devaraj Urs soon

Bengluru: Karnataka government plans to produce a biopic on former chief minister Devaraj Urs, who is credited with ushering in a silent social revolution in the state and undertaking land reforms during his eight year reign from 1972.

The film on Urs, the eighth chief minister of the state, would be made at a budget of Rs three crore, Karnataka Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya said.

"Plans are afoot to make a Rs 3-crore budget biopic on Devaraj Urs one of the celebrated chief ministers of Karnataka," he told reporters here last evening.

The biopic will be directed by T S Nagabharana, Kannada film director and one of the pioneers of parallel cinema, and will be completed in a year's time, Anjaneya said.

Nagabharana had received accolades for directing superhit films - Janumada Jodi - which was based on Gujarati novel "Malela Jiva" by Pannalal Patel, starring Shivarajkumar and Shilpa in lead roles. The story dealt with the caste system.

"Nagabharana has been given all the responsibility to make the film, from the scripting of the film to direction; from music composition to all other aspects of production," he added.

The biopic will showcase Urs' political accomplishments, including the ushering in of a silent social revolution in Karnataka.

The film will also highlight the stress Urs laid on education of people belonging to backward classes, and most notably being abolishment of carrying night soil by Dalits and bonded labour, he added.

The biopic will also depict Urs as one of the greatest social reformers Karnataka had seen, Anjaneya said.

The land reforms spearheaded by him, in which the tiller of the land became the owner, was exemplary. It had reduced the chasm between the rich and the poor, doing away with social inequality, he added.