Kidnappers claim stumps filmmaker

Hyderabad: An unusual connection between a ghastly kidnap and murder of a 15-year-old boy with a Telugu movie seems to have landed filmmakers in this part of the world in a bizarre situation.

• Accused confess to have inspired by watching ‘Oka Romantic Crime Katha’
• Director Sunil Kumar says it’s unfortunate that the accused took name of his film
• Says if they had watched the film till end, they wouldn’t have committed the crime

As the three accused Seshu alias Sairam, P Ravi and N Mohan in the abduction and murder of Abhay Modani for ransom that created quite a sensation confessed to the cops that they were inspired by a Telugu film ‘Oka Romantic Crime Katha’ to commit the ghastly crime.

“It is unfortunate that the accused took the name of my film as an inspiration for their inhuman act. They would have made up their mind to commit the crime since they wanted to make a fast buck.

So it is just an excuse to mention a film to give a new spin to their motive,” says director Sunil Kumar Reddy, who released this film in 2012 revolving around a few misguided students. The film was neither a money-spinner not did it attracted any word of appreciation. In fact, the film drew flak from critics for its sleazy content.

“It was a bold film that showed how some students are resorting to crime to make fast buck. We tried to mirror the society where some youngsters want to become rich overnight, without working hard for it.

The engineering student in our film indulges in chain snatching to show himself to be rich to his lover and this is a reality and we tried to showcase it,” said the director, who feels that the accused would not have committed the crime if they had watched the film till the end.

“May be, it would have deterred them since we concluded up the film with a message that happiness derived out of crime money is momentary as long hands of law are bound to catch and punish them,” he pointed out.

After showcasing the dark side of youngsters, the award-winning filmmaker is making a hard-hitting film ‘Gulf’ around the trials and tribulations of workers from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in Sharjah, Dubai and Doha.

“More than 20 lakh Telugu-speaking workers are employed in five nations in the Gulf and we are going to show how some women workers are exploited by their owners, besides many good things as well. NRIs in Gulf, earn 50,000 dollars a year, much above US NRIs,” he concluded.