MOVIE SPECIAL..................... Keeping vigil with Manjunath

Keeping vigil with Manjunath 

 

How the IIM-Lucknow batchmates of murdered whistleblower Manjunath Shanmugham came together to raise 27 lakh to promote his biopic

Manjunath Shanmugham is back to shake us out of our complacency. And the IIM- Lucknow’s class of 2003 can take a bow. The biopic about Manjunath, their batchmate, that they tirelessly promoted over the past few months spending their own money is making waves.
The film on Manjunath, murdered by the oil mafia in Lakhimpur in Uttar Pradesh in 2005, opened to rave reviews last Friday. Titled Manjunath: Idiot tha Saala, the movie was directed by ad man and filmmaker Sandeep Varma. After the film was completed in late 2013, the core IIM-Lucknow team, comprising Manjunath’s 2003 batchmates Akhil Krishna, Unmesh Sharma, Devendra Batra and Vaibhav Odhekar, took over.
“Devendra and I were good friends but not very close to Manju and Vaibhav didn’t know him well. But we felt we had to do something,” says Sharma, who works with a financial consultancy firm in Mumbai. “There have been other similar cases too, but we felt everyone should know Manju’s story so that it’s not repeated.”
Though a studio was already on board to distribute the movie, the four worked zealously to ensure that the story of their friend reached a large number of viewers. They brought together their entire batch, comprising 240 students, and collected nearly 15 lakh through crowd-funding in 15 days. Alumni from other IIMs also contributed to the corpus. The global pan-IIM alumni network held a screening in Singapore.
They focused on two audience categories —youngsters from underprivileged sections and those who could afford to see the film but needed to be nudged. For the first group, around eight alumni contributed 5 lakh. This sum was matched by contribution from a corporate sponsor, says Sharma. This amount was used to fund tickets, snacks, transport and gifts given for children. For the second group, the IIM alumni raised 15 lakh via crowd-funding. An additional 2 lakh was contributed by Landmark and Trent. This is for discounts for students and young adults who shared the link or promoted the movie online. Those who brought in their families are also offered discounts.
Bangalore-based Krishna, an associate director at a key consulting firm, was both Manjunath’s close friend and a fellow college band member. “Manjunath was an ordinary professional. Woh koi hero banne wala nahi tha. We believe that his story can deliver a powerful message to a wide audience —Manjunath’s story is my own story.”.
    

‘Difficult to fight system alone’
My father regrets giving permission for the film, says Manjunath’s younger brother Raghavendra. “It was tormenting. It was like his son was being killed all over again, on screen. My parents don’t want to discuss the movie at all,” he says. Manjunath Shanmugham The family, which was based in KGF Kolar in Karnataka, shifted to Bangalore soon after Manjunath’s death. “The memories kept tormenting my parents. So I brought them with me to Bangalore,” says Raghavendra. When asked whether the movie will create the impact of making people conscientious of their duty, the 34-year-old strikes a cautious note. “I lost my brother. I know the pain we have gone through. You cannot fight the system single-handed,” says Raghavendra.

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