The Hunt for Veerappan: When and where to watch new documentary on slain forest brigand

A four-part series, directed by debutant Selvaraj Selvamani, will look at the 20-year manhunt that eventually ended in a shoot-out in which Veerappan was killed

Screengrab from The Hunt For Veerappan teaser.

Notorious forest brigand Veerappan was a nightmare for police and forest officials in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for 36 years, during which time he led massive sandalwood and ivory smuggling operations. Said to have killed over 2,000 elephants in the forest ranges of the two states, and smuggled tonnes and tonnes of sandalwood, Veerappan was quite the violent man too, killing close to 200 people, about half of who were police and forest officials who stood in his way.

Over the years, the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments made multiple attempts to apprehend him, but Veerappan not only kept giving them the slip, but also went on to kidnap several prominent personalities, most notable among them that of Kannada matinee idol Dr Rajkumar, who was kept in captivity for 108 days before being released for an alleged ransom amount of Rs 40 crore.

Considered one of the most dangerous men to roam the forests at the time, Veerappan inspired a couple of cinematic adaptations of his life. First up was AMR Ramesh, who made the Kannada-Tamil bilingual Attahasa/Vanayudham with actor Kishore playing the smuggler in 2013. Three years later, Ram Gopal Varma had a go at the subject with Killing Veerappan, a Kannada film starring Sandeep Bharadwaj as Veerappan about Operation Cocoon, launched to capture the forest brigand. He was, however, killed in a shootout as part of the operation. In the Kannada version, Shivarajkumar played a Special Task Force officer, rumoured to have been modelled on NK Senthamarai Kannan, who, along with K Vijay Kumar, led Operation Cocoon. The film was remade in Hindi, with Sachiin Joshi taking on Shivarajkumar’s role. Both Attahasa and RGV's Veerappan are available to stream on Disney+Hotstar.

This week, a four-part documentary about the rise and fall of Veerappan is being released. Directed by Selvamani Selvaraj, the documentary examines how Veerappan came to be a dreaded bandit, and yet was also venerated in some parts of Tamil Nadu as a Robin Hood-like figure. The documentary will be available on August 4 on Netflix and comes days after the 23rdanniversary of the Dr Rajkumar kidnapping. In fact, news of the documentary, the trailer of which seemed to have a tone of glorification for Veerappan, had Kannada audiences wondering if the abduction will also be a part of the narrative and if the makers will have a sensitive portrayal of the same. In 2000, when Dr Rajkumar had been abducted, it had led to tension between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, with sporadic attacks on Tamilians in Bengaluru being reported.

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