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In the cause of justice

Padmini Devi in Hyderabad

Laxmi Parvathi. Click for bigger pic!

Why should the widow of N T Rama Rao not be able to act? Indeed, why not? Why cannot Laxmi Parvathi, the MLA from Pathapatnam play, if nothing else, herself on screen?

And she has too, in a film timed for release when her state of Andhra Pradesh is gearing up for the assembly election next year. Of course, politics in Andhra Pradesh has always been inextricably linked with its film industry. For wasn't NTR himself a screen icon in his heydey?

"I have accepted the role as it is very akin to my character and my struggle in real life. The story is about an upright MLA who wages a struggle against the corrupt government and against the injustice meted out to her..."

1 This, she assures you, is a film with a message and has several real life incidents threaded into the story. And as bonus, it has old shots of NTR addressing people and some other scenes in flashback. These are some of the direct references to NTR in the film. In fact, the film opens with the unveiling of an NTR statue.

Asked if she was promoting herself and her son Surya alias Koteshwara Prasad in this film, she said, "I accepted the role since it reflected myself. As far as my son is concerned, he is doing it for fun during his holidays, so that it does not disrupt his studies." Her son is in the first year of the MBBS course at Bangalore.

Click for bigger pic!

Apart from enacting a role, she is also penning a song for the film and offering advice in the dialogues department. Asked if she was also producing the film, she said she was neither producing the film nor was she charging any money for doing the role. The film is actually being produced by one Bhaskara Chary.

Laxmi Parvathi said she was strengthening her party from the grass-root levels up, actively addressing the problems of the common man. She said she would use cinema which she considers as one of the most effective ways of getting the message across. And while she hadn't planned to act in more films, she wasn't closed to the idea either.

With her late husband N T Rama Rao. Click for bigger pic!

Active work on the untitled film is to begin on October 1 and the producers are aiming at a Sankranti release (January 14). The film will be shot in Hyderabad and Pathapatnam, her constituency. The stint at Pathepatnam covers the bits covering her own election campaign -- when, against all odds she won the by-election.

She claims she faced every kind of pressure from the ruling party headed by her late husband's son-in-law Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu to head her off. All those incidents would be depicted in the upcoming film, she promised. In addition, the developmental work taken up in the constituency, including the laying of roads in tribal areas, the provision of drinking water, and the construction of schools and houses for the weaker sections may also be depicted. And, she pointed out, these works had been taken up with assembly constituency development programme funds worth just Rs 2.5 million.

Click for bigger pic!

The film is intended to be a double-edged sword, with the story expected to attract all political voyeurs while drawing sympathy to herself during the run-up to the poll. Not, of course, that Laxmi Parvathi would say that herself.

What she does say, of course, is that her people will not let her down, and that they will ensure the success of the film.

Speed News Service