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Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Gudur Narayan Reddy’s movie ‘Razakar: Silent Genocide of Hyderabad’, based on the annexation of Hyderabad to India in 1948, is slated for release on March 1. The Hindutva propaganda movie largely focuses on the Muslim militia called Razakars (volunteers) which indulged in looting and other violence in the days leading to the erstwhile Hyderabad state’s annexation by the Indian army on September 17, 1948. The movie was supposed to release last year before the Assembly polls but was delayed.
Narayan Reddy, a long time Congressman from Bhongir district who shifted to the BJP a few years ago, has produced the film. It was slated to release in the run up to the Telangana Assembly election that was held on November 30 last year. In October, he had written to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) asking to allow his move to be released on November 17, stating that it was not made with the intention to create communal discord, given that many have accused him to spreading anti-Muslim hate through the film.
However the movie did not release last year, and eventually got delayed. Moreover, it may be recalled that Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) had in September 2023 also stated that the then BRS government would stop the movie’s release and take the issue to the censor board.
The movie’s poster also portrays some casteist overtones. It shows a purported Brahmin boy being impaled as Razakars from a distance watch.
This story was originally published in siasat.com. Read the full story here.
