Gautamiputra Satakarni has become a big talking point this festival season. But all is not well. A historian recently raised objection that the king was not a Telugu person.
“I don’t want to start a discussion and make somebody famous right now. We are not bigger than Kavisamrat Viswanatha Satyanarayana, who has written about Satakarni in his book Andhra Prasasthi decades back. I felt that Satakarni is a Telugu person and made the film. If you like the film, appreciate it; it’s not the time to degrade ourselves,” says director Krish.
He explains, “All we know about the King is what we read in our textbooks as children. I did a lot of research and found there was no complete information on him anywhere, so I took a few facts and added some fiction to make it cinematic.”
He adds, “In my research, I found that Satakarni was poisoned, although they didn’t mention exactly how it happened. So we added an imaginary scene. There is also no evidence of when he actually put his mother’s name before his own. We have taken whatever we got from our research and added fictional elements to it.”
Reacting to a historian’s accusation on how a fictional movie could be tax-free, Krish says, “I don’t want to comment on it. I thank both the Chief Ministers for the tax exemptions. “I don’t want to comment on it. I thank both the Chief Ministers for the tax exemptions. Maybe some people cannot digest that I am a Telugu director who has come up with such a good and successful film, which is why they have started throwing accusations against me,” he says.
After the audio function, Krish was also trolled for using the word Khabardar. “The word actually comes in the film after the climax. It was not intended at anyone, but some over-enthusiastic fans trolled me,” he says.
However, despite the cloud the film has come under, the director’s phone is filled with congratulatory messages and calls from Tollywood celebs. Krish admits that the first compliment came from his wife Ramya.
“I started this project just after my wedding and could hardly spend even a few days with her. When I watched the film with her, she told me that it was really worth waiting all this time,” he says.
