He is everywhere, on T-shirts, posters, stickers and even earrings. But most youngsters who proudly wear Che Guevara’s image have no clue who the man is. And Saidului Poosapelli aka Cheran, the film-maker who screened a documentary on the youth icon, in Telugu, started off the process with just that.
“Before making the documentary, I interviewed 10 to 15 people, who were wearing an image of Che. And they had answers like ‘pop star’ to even ‘snooker player’.” And hence the movie. “This was an attempt to introduce him to the Telugu audiences,” says Cheran, who personally related to Che Guevara in the context of the Telangana struggle.
A native of Thungathurthy in Nalgonda district of Telangana state, Cheran was influenced by the socialist ideology in his early years. He was a witness of the “brutalities of feudal oppression”.
The documentary that covers the life of the revolutionary, however, isn’t in the drab format of black and white clippings, but elements of a feature film were incorporated. “I had two lyricists to write songs inspired by Che and put him in today’s context,” he says.
The research was easy with the many documentaries already available. While the Bolivian Diaries was a primary source of clippings; for information, he worked with the Telugu book Pravahinche Uttejam Che Guevara by Katyayani. Although set into perspective in the Telangana context, according to Cheran, “The film isn’t just limited to that view. The narrative, in the larger sense, is intended to inspire people to take up social responsibilities even if there are sacrifices involved.”
Source: Deccan Chronicle