On his 76th birthday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah met with Prime Minister Modi for the first time after Congress came back to power which was described as a ‘courtsey visit’ and also to discuss all state related issues.

Back in the state, a two-part biopic of the CM titled ‘Leader Ramaiah’ is being made by artists in the Kannada film industry. 

The Chief Minister said that discussions on various issues took place during his meeting with PM Modi. This comes as a verbal slugfest over the poll promise of freebies, between the Central leadership and the State’s Congress party continues. Just yesterday, the CM retaliated against Modi for a comment he had made on the provision of freebies affecting the State’s finances. 

He also met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge on his visit to Delhi. While Siddaramaiah is taking strides in the second innings of his CMship, much more about his entire journey will be out for the audience to watch. 

A Kannada biopic titled Leader Ramaiah- A King Raised By People is being made in two parts by Kannada movie director Sathya Ratnam. The first part of the film will show the CM’s childhood and his early days as a young lawyer. The second part will depict his entire political journey. 

The makers of the film are trying to rope in popular Tamil actor Vijay Sethupati to play  Siddaramaiah at a later age. Kannada actor Nirup Bhandari of ‘Rangitaranga’ fame is being considered among other actors to play the role of young Siddaramaiah. 

Highlighting journey

Ratnam told businessline,“The idea is to show the life of the man who rose from nothing to becoming the CM of the State. We think it is important to highlight his journey, in a country where dynasty politics is very prominent. With this movie, we aim to depict how the power of people/democracy is important in the making of a politician.” 

The movie has been in the works for seven months and will be on the floor by the end of August. The movie is being produced by I F Peera of production house MS Creative Works and a ‘fan’ of Siddaramaiah, Channu Allalli of Kanakgiri town. The first part of the biopic is budgeted at ₹8 crore, according to Ratnam. 

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has met with the director of the movie twice already and has gone through the initial parts of the script. The makers of the movie will make an official announcement and provide more details on the 10th of August. businessline did not receive a comment from the CM’s office by the time of publication.

Political Analyst Rajendra Chenni opines that this will be seen as an imitation of what other leaders are doing — referring to biopics of Narendra Modi and Manmohan Singh. “The timing isn’t very ideal as there is still a lot of unrest in the State. Citizens will be more interested to watch him in action to deliver on his promises and address the issues, rather than a movie depicting his life,” he said.