While everyone thinks that Abhishek Bachchan plays a character based on Raavana in Mani Ratnam's Raavana, the film's most wellkept secret is out.
Abhishek's character in the forthcoming film is not only based on the life of Raavana but also on Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy, says a media report.
The report quoting a source said, “Mani Ratnam loves having a strong element of contemporary history in his films. Be it Nayakan based on don Vardha Rajan's life, Guru based on Dhirubhai Ambani's life or Bombay which depicted the Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai after the Babri Masjid demolition. Even in Roja, Dil Se and Yuva, Mani dealt with serious issues such as terrorism in Kashmir, a woman suicide bomber and college politics respectively. While there is a buzz about Raavana being inspired from the Ramayana and that Abhishek is playing Raavana, fact is that the real inspiration for Abhishek's character came from Kobad Ghandy.”
Mani had appointed a team of researchers to get as much data available about Kobad Ghandy as he wanted Abhishek's character to be strikingly similar to the Maoist leader. “In Raavana Abhishek plays Veera, a naxalite leader of the downtrodden villagers in eastern Madhya Pradesh. Just like Ghandy's Communist party India-Maoist is banned, Abhishek's organisation is also banned in the film,” added the source.
“Abhishek's character in Raavana is very intelligent. Ghandy was assigned the task to win over the middle class and intellectual society in Karnataka and Kerala as the Maoists thought that he could do this with ease. The major difference between the two characters is that while Ghandy is an educated man, Abhishek's character is from a small and remote village from Eastern MP. In short, the story of the Ramayana is very nicely and intelligently woven into the story of Kobad Ghandy,” said the source.
