The trailer of the film ‘Razakar’ tells how BJP is trying to create communal polarization in Telangana.
‘कश्मीर फाइल्स’ की तर्ज पर भाजपा की ‘रज़ाकार’ फिल्म के जरिए वोट बटोरने की कोशिश
The producers emphasize that this is a period film, a part of history. It is still unclear whether the Telugu film ‘Razakar’ has actually received the certificate for release, although the makers claim that it will release in October – two months before the assembly elections in Telangana. However, the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) is all set to stop its release considering it to be a political propaganda film that incites sentiments.
The teaser of the film, less than two minutes and 13 seconds long, was released in Hyderabad on 17 September. This reveals two things: its production is slick – a lot of money has been spent on it; It features some of the most brutal, detailed violence, massacre and rape scenes in recent times (and haven’t we seen scenes like that lately?).
T. Raja Singh, the controversial and suspended Bharatiya Janata Party MLA for his hate speech, was highly praising, saying ‘It is an excellent film.’ He was invited to release the teaser and asked his people to ‘spread awareness’ about the film.
The teaser/trailer starts with the opening sound: ’15 August, 1947… India gained independence. But not Hyderabad. Subsequent scenes show bearded Muslims claiming to have transformed Hyderabad into ‘Turkistan’. These are the Razakars who cut off a Hindu’s mustache or his tongue. Many dead bodies are hanging on the branches of a big tree. A Muslim ‘officer’ breaks the sacred thread of a Brahmin.
The producer of the film ‘Razakar: Silent Genocide in Hyderabad’ is BJP leader Gudur Narayan Reddy. He is from Telangana. When you know this, the mystery of ‘timing’ of its release on 17th September gets solved automatically. On the same day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was in the state to participate in the rally.
And who were the Razakars? This was the personal army of the former Nizam of Hyderabad – which brutally dealt with both the communists agitating against the landowners and the Hindus and Muslims who wanted to maintain the Nizam’s independent monarchy by not joining either India or Pakistan. Were against the plan.
But the teaser specifically focuses on the alleged atrocities on Hindus. BRS working president and IT Minister KT Rama Rao expressed anger over this, saying it was a clear attempt to stoke communal tension in the state ahead of the elections. He posted on his social media handle that ‘Some intellectually bankrupt jokers of BJP are making every possible effort to incite communal violence and polarization in Telangana for their political propaganda… We will take this matter to the Censor Board. And will ask the Telangana Police to ensure that the law and order of the state is not affected.
Rama Rao is not alone in his belief that the BJP wants to use film as a weapon to win the elections. Political observers recall a similar effort in Karnataka. There too, in an attempt to ‘mobilize Hindus’, before the elections in May, BJP had presented Tipu Sultan as an Islamic, anti-Hindu villain. And it is a known historical fact that Mysore Tiger had resisted the East India Company and British forces and was killed while fighting against them.
The sustained campaign of misinformation against the Mysore ruler was aimed at falsifying people’s knowledge of history and insulting the Muslims of the state. In comparison, it is easier to spread misinformation about the Razakars – after all, it was a faceless army, had no national heroes and these things do not even feature in any school history textbook.
This is a Telugu film which is being dubbed in many languages. It follows in the footsteps of ‘The Kashmir Files’ and ‘The Kerala Story’. Both films, in the name of ‘true history’, present a stereotypical image of Muslims and show them as having demonic tendencies.
Producer Gudur Narayana Reddy claims that his desire is to highlight lesser-known ‘historical facts’ that have been suppressed. In a phone conversation, he said, ‘His grandfather had lay down in front of the jeep of Razakar chief Qasim to stop him from moving forward. … The Razakars committed atrocities at what was then Nalkonda, barely two kilometers from my village Gudur. . I grew up in the village hearing about these atrocities.
Reddy was a Congress member for 40 years. He joined BJP in 2020. He does gardening in Kodagu, Karnataka. He says he received a divine message to make this film: ‘On January 26, 2022, when his plane touched the ground in Tirupati, the name Razakar suddenly came to his mind. It felt as if God was asking him to make a film. He says that the film production started in August, 2022. he says that
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