Mumbai filmmaker's tribute to IndianOil’s whistleblower Manjunath
New Delhi   24-Dec-2009
A Mumbai-based filmmaker has decided to make a full-feature movie on Manjunath Shanmugam, the IndianOil employee who was killed after he blew the whistle on a fuel adulteration racket in 2005. Manjunath was shot dead for trying to prevent adulteration of petroleum products at Lakhimpur Kheri. "The story was inspiring enough to be filmed," said Mr. Sandeep A Verma, who had showcased the idea during the annual Film Bazaar organised by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) recently at Goa. The project was selected as one of the eight movies to be co-produced by the NFDC this year, confirmed Ms. Nina Lath Gupta, Managing Director of the NFDC. "The project that received a good response during the festival has been selected along with three others to attend the Rotterdam Lab at the 39th International Film Festival, Rotterdam, to be held early next year," said Mr. Vuma, who has several films to his credit, including Arjun Pandit (as a co-writer). Rotterdam Lab is known for encouraging select budding producers. Also the Managing Director of ICOMO Advertising, Mr. Sandeep is currently writing and directing a feature film titled Paradise on Earth, a black comedy based in Kashmir. He has earlier assisted filmmaker Mr. Sudhir Mishra in various projects. Yet to start working on the cast and crew of the film, Manju Tujhe Salam, Mr. Sandeep is almost through with the screenplay. "Since Manjunath was a joyful person by nature and a reasonably good singer, the story cuts back and forth from a rock concert which is the unique treatment to the screenplay," said Mr. Sandeep, confident that the youth would lap up the film. "His quality of being an idealist, of not being a quitter and his exposure of how the poor people's kerosene was siphoned off from the ration shops to be mixed with diesel would be the theme of the plot." "Sandeep has constantly consulted us during the project for all the inputs we could provide as batchmates of Manjunath," says Sushant, one of the members of the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust, which was set up by the batchmates of the slain UM-Lucknow alumnus. The trust pursued the criminal case in which Lakhimpur Kheri Sessions Court convicted all the eight accused. While the main accused Mr. Monu Mittal was awarded death sentence, others were given life terms. Recently, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court commuted the death sentence of main accused into life imprisonment and acquitted two others. Mr. Debashish Chatterjee, Director, IIM-Khozikode, who was Manjunath's professor at IIM-Lucknow, is also hopeful that the film succeeds in capturing Manjunath's courage. "I hope the movie inspires many more people," said Chatterjee.