Identity Theft

SS Rajamouli’s dehumanising portrayal of the Gond community

- AKASH POYAM

In the final scene of SS Rajamouli’s period film RRR, Alluri Sitarama Raju— dressed as the Hindu deity Ram and played by the Telugu actor Ram Charan—asks what favour he may bestow on his fellow revolutionary Komaram Bheem, played by NT Rama Rao Jr. “Bheem, you fulfilled my goal, gave me ammunition for the cause,” he says. “What can I do for you?” Komaram replies, “Give me an education, brother.” Alluri pricks his finger with the tip of an arrow and writes “Jal, jangal, zameen”—water, forest and land—in the Devanagari script on a white flag.

There is a lot to unpack in this scene. Although a disclaimer at the start of the film declares that RRR is a work of fiction that “doesn’t imitate or imply any person whether living or dead, doesn’t indicate any race, caste, creed or tribe,” Rajamouli’s media interviews and the film itself make it clear that the two protagonists are based on historical figures. Alluri, who belonged to a Kshatriya caste, led the Rampa Rebellion of 1922–24, in which the Adivasi population of the Madras province’s Godavari Agency engaged in guerrilla warfare against the British. Komaram, who belonged to the Gond community of Adilabad, led an armed uprising against the nizams of Hyderabad between 1928 and 1940. RRR tells a fictional story of the two of them coming together to rescue a Gond girl before they embark on their respective rebellions. However, Rajamouli does not treat the two revolutionaries as equals. Alluri—whose caste location is made clear by the sacred thread he wears—is depicted as Komaram’s savarna saviour, teaching the “noble savage” the ways of “civilised life.”