Operation Cocoon takes a reel turn

DGP K Vijay Kumar - who headed the operation that ended in the death of forest brigand Veerappan - speaks about the film Attahasa

The subject of Veerappan's death, like the forest brigand himself, seems to court controversy. And it seems the film, Attahasa - which is about Operation Cocoon that resulted in the death of Veerappan - will be no different. Director AMR Ramesh of Cyanide and Kuppi fame is making a film about the incident, and Director General, Police, K Vijay Kumar, who headed the operation, is taking a keen interest in the project. "When Ramesh approached me with the idea of making a film about Veerappan, I was neither excited nor wary about the idea. If the film had been made immediately after the operation, it would have had a different impact on me altogether. But it's been almost seven years and I am quite detached from it now," he says.

In fact, a few months before Veerappan was killed, his wife Muthulakshmi visited an astrologer to find out what the future held for her husband as she was sure he was in some kind of danger. And as she suspected, the brigand met his end in an encounter headed by Vijay Kumar (who was the Commandant of the Special Task Force and Additional Director-General of Police at the time) and SP, STF NK Senthamarai Kannan.

Whenever a film is made about a real-life incident, controversies abound. And Vijay Kumar agrees that Attahasa will be no exception. "There is a tendency to glorify things in such films. When Veerappan died, there were two questions doing the rounds. First, many believed that the the operation was carried out in an unethical manner. Second, there was an issue regarding how a person like him who could never be caught alive was suddenly gunned down by the police. Later, I explained why he could not be caught alive: he had killed at least 44 forest officials and 80 other policemen and we could not afford to lose more lives in the operation. We had decided that there would be no more bloodshed," says Vijay Kumar.

He adds, "It was a long and painful wait, but we wanted to nab him in a proper manner. We had to be extremely careful and guard the lives of many other people. There were some things that we would not discuss within the police force itself. We refused to ask each other questions after a certain point. It was a conscious decision to make it a very hush-hush affair. I had wonderful colleagues like Kannan who played a vital role in the operation and made it successful."

And actor Arjun Sarja, who plays DGP Vijay Kumar in the film, is taking tips from the top cop. "He spoke to me once over the phone and asked me for some inputs. We have not met yet," Vijay Kumar signs off. 

source :the time of india