Pawan Kalyan's cop look in " Gabbar Singh", the remake of Hindi superhit "Dabangg", might have his fans going into a tizzy, but the Andhra Pradesh Police are literally seeing red.
Their grouse? They feel the police force is being caricatured in the film in which Pawan essays the role of a small town cop. Posters and publicity stills splashed everywhere, show Pawan with his signature devil-may-care smirk, in an unbuttoned, untucked khaki shirt with a red towel tied around his head, rowdy style. In fact, it's this red towel that has attracted the ire of the AP Police Officers Association.
KV Chalapathi Rao, State President, AP Police Officers Association says, "The red towel which Pawan Kalyan wears in one of the movie stills is the point of contention. We see municipality workers in such attire generally and it is derogatory to show a police officer in such light. I have received many complaints from my colleagues and even civilians about the posters and trailers of the movie for the last one month. Now we have approached the Censor Board officials to lodge our complaint. We will watch the movie and decide on our future course of action. We will not hesitate to file a case in the court of law if we find anything objectionable as far the portrayal of Police on screen goes."Nandi Award-winning stylist, Deepa Chander thinks that the issue is being blown out of proportion. "It is the story of a rowdy cop and that is the context in which it has to be viewed. In any case, it is common place to see cops in the interior areas sitting in a police station with their buttons open and sometimes even wearing a lungi! As stylists, we try to stay as close to reality as possible, but we have the creative liberty to add other elements to convey the essence of the character on screen," fumes Deepa, adding, "In any case, the police officers that we see on screen are generally a lot better turned out than the cops we see in real life." A source from the unit of the film, seeking anonymity, seconds the view. "Pawan Kalyan plays a complete mass character in the movie, and the posters and trailers are trying to communicate just that," he says.
The movie is the Telugu remake of the Salman Khan-starrer, "Dabangg", which went on to win a national Award. When the original did not face any such issues, and when we've had many other films in the past which had police officers playing villains, raping women, taking bribes, etc., why single out this one?
"Somebody has to start somewhere. It has become fashionable to have scenes where the hero beats up 25 police officers in the commissioner's office. Just because no one bothered to register a complaint or protest, things have come to this stage. It's become common for filmmakers to caricature cops. We will not take it lying down anymore. cops have become more aware of our rights," adds Chalapathi Rao.
The film fraternity however, cries foul. Filmmaker Tammareddy Bharadwaj minces no words when he says, "These days, it's become impossible to make films - some group or the other always seems to have problems with anything we do. It is a blatant infringement of the creative liberty of a filmmaker. In any case, we hear so many cases of corruption and dereliction of duties against cops every day. The police would do well to clean up their act before raising a hue and cry over such issues," he says.
