Explained: Who Were Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, The 'Real Life' Heroes Of RRR

Following the success of 'Baahubali,' director SS Rajamouli has held his followers on pins and needles with his historical action flick, 'RRR' (Rise, Roar, Revolt). Since its announcement, the picture has generated a lot of hype. The multi-starrer, according to Rajmouli, is a fictional storey based on two of India's greatest independence fighters, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem.

"'RRR' displays Ram Charan and Jr NTR recreating the fairly young versions of Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem ¡ª the groundbreaking freedom warriors from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana," Rajmouli says at the film's 1st media briefing in Hyderabad, with Jr NTR, Ram Charan, and producer DVV Danayya. They remain far from home (in Delhi) before fighting for the country," Rajamouli explained.

Two revolutionaries

Wikipedia

Alluri Sitaram Raju, an Indian rebel who became a monk at the age of 18, led the Rampa Rebellion in 1922 opposing the British Raj for enacting the 1882 Madras Forest Act, which heavily limited the tribal group's freedom of movement within their own woodlands. The village was unwilling to completely implement the traditional Podu agricultural method, which entailed shifting cultivation, as a result of the Act's ramifications.

In 1924, Raju was taken into police custody, tied to a tree, and shot by a public execution, effectively ending the armed rebellion. He was awarded the designation of manyam veerudu, or "forest hero," for his courage.

Another rebel, Komaram Bheem, had fled from jail and was hiding on a tea plantation in Assam. He learned of Alluri's uprising while he was there, and he was inspired to defend the Gond tribe to which he belonged.

In the early 1900s, he spearheaded a rebellion against the last Nizam of Hyderabad and the oppression of local landowners. Nizam is suspected of committing atrocities on unarmed tribals. Furthermore, substantial taxes were charged on crop income, making it difficult for the impoverished to live. Bheem originated the historical slogan 'Jal Jangal Zameen,' which has been extensively echoed in Adivasi struggles until this day.

Wikibio

While his actual birth year is unknown, he is believed to be born around 1900.

S S Rajamouli, the National Film Award-winning filmmaker, is now linking these two historic strands in his film RRR, which is set a century later. The director had previously stated there was no documentation of these leaders' activities while they were not in their native villages. Both of them had been absent from their homes for a few years, and when they returned, they initiated an organized uprising for their people's freedom, for which they were martyred.

N T Rama Rao Jr and Ram Charan star in the film, which also has Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Olivia Morris, Alison Doody, Ray Stevenson, Shriya Saran, and Samuthirakani in supporting parts.

According to an Indian Express report, Rajamouli has even borrowed other aspects from our folklore in addition to 'Ram and Bheema.'

The other two themes explored

Sita's abduction is the central theme of the Ramayana. Likewise, in the film, the kidnapping of a young girl from a tribal village sets off a series of events that leads to Rama's incarceration. Hanuman becomes Rama's messenger in the ancient epic and delivers a message to Sita, who is imprisoned by Ravana in Lanka. This episode, however, is reversed in Rajamouli's epic.

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Bheem embodies the attributes of Bheema from the Mahabharata while also serving as Ram's trusty subordinate. And he serves as a courier between the two loves as well as the hero who saves one of the key characters from certain death by delivering 'Sanjeevani' on time.

The skull cap controversy

Jr NTR, who plays Komaram Bheem, is shown in the trailer donning a skull cap and soorma (kohl). A segment of the public was offended and warned the creators.

SS Rajamouli made it clear in various interviews that RRR was a fictional work, not a reenactment of the two liberation warriors' lives. RRR portrays Jr NTR as the great Bheem, the Gond tribe's defender. Bheem flees to Delhi after the British forcibly remove a child from his clan.

Rajamouli and his father, K. V. Vijayendra Prasad, who wrote RRR's story, revealed that the story imagines a scenario in which Raju and Bheem met during their formative years away from their respective villages. What if they'd met on a hotbed of revolt?

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