The Kannada version was released in over 200 screens in the state of Karnataka on January 1, 2016.[5][6][7][8] Upon its wide release, critics praised the performances, background score, cinematography, screenplay, casting, and direction while becoming a box office success,[9][10] and subsequently got screened in Kannada cinema section at the 9th Bengaluru International Film Festival 2017.[11]
The Telugu dubbed version was released on 7 January 2016 to positive reviews [12][13] and had a decent run at the overseas box-office.[14] The Kannada version has garnered three nominations at the 2nd IIFA Utsavam including Best Picture in Kannada, while Parul Yadav and Yagna Shetty have each received the Performance In A Leading Role and Supporting Role - Female respectively.[15] The film has also garnered five nominations; including Parul Yadav winning Critics Choice Award for Best Actress at the 6th SIIMA Awards,[16][17] and one nomination for Best Actress at the 64th Filmfare Awards South.[18] The film was remade into Hindi as Veerappan (2016) with Bharadwaj reprising his role.[19][20]
Plot
Forest brigand Veerappan (Sandeep Bhardwaj), dominant in Sathyamangalam Forest in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala,
defies the governments, and Indian Border security paramilitary forces, and maintain a small army. He is wanted for killing approximately 184 people, about half of whom were police officers, including senior police and forest officials. He was also wanted for poaching about 200 elephants and smugglingivory worth US$2,600,000 and about 10,000 tonnes of sandalwood worth approximately US$22,000,000.
In 1991, Veerappan and his chief Intel Gandhi (Sadh Orhan), behead IFS Officer P. Srinivas (Gadda Viji). Years later, Veerappan avenges the death of his close associate Gandhi by misleading Special Task Force (STF) personnel in their covert operation, through Gandhi's unnamed notorious informer (Aziz Naser). The covert mission led by T. Harikrishna S.P. (Rockline Venkatesh), and his informer S.I. Shakeel Ahmed (Rajesh Nataranga) to kill Veerappan fails miserably. Veerappan, and his army brutally assassinate all the STF officers in the operation, and snatch their arms.
The Tamil Nadu STF chief K. Vijay Kumar I.P.S. (K. S. Sridhar) appoints his associate, an undercover I.P.S. spy in the Karnataka region, a master-strategist (Shiva Rajkumar), who puts in place the Operation Cocoon through a network of tribals, and informers, such as Deputy spy (Sanchari Vijay), a woman STF spy and landlord, Shriya (Parul Yadav), who befriends and rents out house to Muthulakshmi-the wife of Veerappan (Yagna Shetty). On the other hand, a team of loyal undercover cops led by Rambo Krishna (K Gopalakrishnan), leave Palar base of STF, near M. M. Hills, 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Kollegal of Karnataka along with a team of 41 members which includes police from two states, forest officials, forest watchers and informers. The team travels in two vehicles, of which one is a bus carrying most of the team members, and a jeep carrying K.Goplakrishnan, the IPS officer. Veerappan gang plants landmines on the road in more than 14 places to halt their approach, and during the Palar blast, K.Gopalakrishnan, standing on the foot board of the jeep is thrown out, and suffer severe injuries, leaving the police to retaliate and ultimately prevent the snatching of arms.
After few failed attempts, including the one led by another undercover cop (Gundragovi Satya), disguised as a subordinate to Muslim underworld Don-Kadaani (Ramesh Pandit), to negotiate arms deal with Veerappan's gang, the STF team led by master-strategist, and an ex-spy turned timberyard owner-Kumar (Srikanth Iyyengar), finally succeed on 18 October 2004. On that day, Veerappan is escorted out of the forest by Kumar who earlier infiltrates Veerappan's gang in disguise to negotiate another arms deal with Velupillai Prabhakaran. Subsequently, veerappan and his men board an ambulance stationed at Papparapatti village in Dharmapuri district, Veerappan and his men are first warned and then asked to surrender, which was denied, and the men start firing at the STF personnel. The STF retaliate by firing grenades and gun fire, subsequently Veerappan and his men are killed on the spot.
Gundragovi Sathya as undercover cop Anees who goes to Veerappan in the disguise of a subordinate of the underworld don Kadhani for settling the arms deal
'Satish' Adla Satish Kumar as Sethukali Govindan, a close aid of Veerappan from his childhood till death
Production
Killing Veerappan is Ram Gopal Varma's second docudrama since the release of The Attacks of 26/11. Killing Veerappan is produced by B. V. Manjunath, B. S. Sudhindra, E. Shivaprakash, and Ram Gopal Varma under the production house of ZED3 Pictures & G.R. Pictures. The film's music was composed by Ravi Shankar, Rajasekhar and the Background score was done by Sandy. The dialogues were written by Balaji K and the cinematography was helmed by Rammy.[22]
Ravishankar scored the film's background music and co-composed for the soundtrack along with Rajasekhar, Munna Kasi, Sathya Kashyap and Sandy. Lyrics for the soundtrack was penned by Chethan Kumar and Srujan. The soundtrack album consists of nine tracks including three instrumentals.[23] It was released on 3 November 2015 in Bangalore.[24]
