Star Entertainment Pvt Ltd. unveiled the first look of its forthcoming mega opus ‘Red Alert- The War Within’ at Leela Kempinsky on Thursday in the presence of its star cast Suniel Shetty, Sameera Reddy, Seema Biswas, Gulshan Grover, writer Aruna Raje, Director Ananth Mahadevan, music director Lalit Pandit and producers T P Aggarwal & Rahul Aggarwal.
‘Red alert- the war within’ is a film based on naxalite movement in India. Based on real life story, its scenes have uncanny resemblance to the actual happenings in Bengal and Bihar. ‘Red alert- the war within’ is right out of the front pages of today’s newspaper on to the screen.
Point of pride was also the fact that ‘Red Alert-The War Within’ is holding its World Premiere at Strutgaurd Festival, Germany, where it is chosen as the closing film for the festival. It is also the official entry in the competition section. Comments Rahul Aggarwal, “I am realporud to say that we have got the place of pride in international festival. We are definitely looking at other festivals too. This film is a close-up of the turbulent scenario, a frontline view of what is actually happening today. All conversations in the film are actual quotes from the interviews of real Naxalites on the net, done by journalists. Almost all events are the retelling of incidents that happened over the past few years. I am happy that as producer, my first film has such quality.”
Comments the director Ananth Mahadevan, “When filming of ‘Red Alert – the War within’ began, the Naxalite movement existed but appeared to have taken a back seat. Suddenly, in the past two months, it has become so rampant and volatile, that the film looks almost as if it was culled from today’s headlines.” In fact some of the footage in the film shot much earlier, almost came alive on news channels today. There’s a scene in the film where the police are shown pulling the villagers out, to flush out and hunt down the Naxalites. Watching the recent raids by the military in Krishnagiri on channels was uncanny, because it appeared as if they had broadcast the scene from Red Alert. One wonders whether life is imitating art or art is imitating life.
Says Suniel Shetty, “for me this character of Narsimha is real. I have lived his thoughts and reactions throughout the film. Playing a person who is alive and doing the scenes that are real, gives an actor another high. Thorns or leeches, I have enjoyed the making. I just hope that this film will be a wakeup call to the government.” In fact Gulshan Grover went a step ahead with, “home minister has said that India’s greatest threat is from within the country and not from across the border. This film is our call to wake up now.”
This is the true story of Narsimha, a farm labourer, who desperately needed money to fund the education of his children. He finds himself in the midst of Naxalites where his mission becomes a mere subset of a greater cause that the militant’s pursue.
From being a mere cook to actually training in weapons to being involved in shootouts and kidnapping, Narsimha himself in the thick of life he had never bargained for. A confrontation with the group leaders turns his life upside down & he is now on the run both from law and the militants.
Produced under the banner of Star Entertainment Pvt Ltd, film ‘Red Alert- The War Within’ stars Suniel Shetty, Sameera Reddy, Ayesha Dharker, Seema Biswas, Makrand Deshpande, Bhagyashree, Ashish Vidyarthi, Ehsaan Khan, Zakir Hussein, Suneel Sinha with Gulshan Grover, Naseeruddin Shah and Vinod Khanna.
Film is directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, K. Rajkumar is the Director of Photography and Executive producer is George F Cameron.
