Three scenes censored

TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu makes Ram Gopal Varma edit scenes from Rakta Charitra, it showed his mentor NTR in bad light.

Director Ram Gopal Varma probably anticipated controversies when he set out to make

HT Image

Rakht Charitra

. The latest is that followers of the Telugu Dessam Party (TDP), led by N Chandrababu Naidu, have got the filmmaker to cut out scenes supposedly showing former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N T Rama Rao (NTR) in bad light.

One scene in question features Shatrughan Sinha (playing NTR) and Vivek Oberoi’s Paritala Ravi after he lays downs his arms.

When Sinha asks Oberoi who will do vandalism on his behalf, the latter replies that he hasn’t laid down the arms, he will continue to use for that effect. That’s when Sinha winks at Oberoi, suggesting that he approves his astuteness.

Viveik Oberoi

Another instance is when Bukka Reddy (Abhimanyu Singh) blasts a bomb to drive Sinha out of Ananthpur. The voiceover declares that the senior leader who was once feared has turned his back and run away. Later on in the film, Sinha instigates Oberoi to kill Singh.

Not rusprisingly, TDP followers rushed to Varma’s office in Hyderabad to protest against the poor portrayal of their former leader.

“Since Ramu

ji

was not in office, we tried reasoning with the protestors that there was no point in creating a ruckus at the office,” said our source from Hyderabad. When contacted, Varma confirmed the protests: “They stopped the screening in some theatres. But we removed the scenes they raised objections against. So everything is sorted and fine now,” he said.