(From left) Vivek Oberoi, Surya and Shatrughan Sinha in the film

Hyderabad, Oct. 24: You could almost say the “killer” from Ramgopal Varma’s Rakht Charitra leapt out of the screen and held the audience in thrall even before the credits rolled.

At the Friday night premiere of the blood-and-gore biopic in Bangalore, moviegoers scrambled to their feet in awe, even fear, when the man who allegedly masterminded the murder of Telugu Desam MLA’s Paritala Ravi — played by Vivek Oberoi — strode into the theatre.

A single wave of the left hand, and the hundreds in the hall fell silent. Another gesture, and all took their seats like schoolchildren obeying their teacher’s command.

Guarded by his personal army of 40 members as well as 250 others, M. Suryanarayana had come from Andhra’s Anantpur, 150km away, to watch the film. Only recently, he was acquitted in a case connected with Ravi’s 2007 killing.

The film — on the life and times of Paritala Ravi — shows Oberoi wreaking revenge on politicians who have bumped off his father and brother. A virtual reign of terror ensues: eyes are gouged out, throats slit with sickles, women abducted and raped, rats let loose on a victim and a drill is bored into a skull. In the end, Oberoi is himself killed.

On a larger level, the movie encapsulates the bloody saga of revenge and counter-revenge between warring Reddy and non-Reddy groups in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra. The Reddy and non-Reddy clash translates to a political rivalry between the Desam and the Congress.

Ravi, the Desam legislator from Penugonda in Anantpur till his daylight killing in 2007, was a staunch N.T. Rama Rao loyalist and a non-Reddy. Known to have murdered at least 112 people, he allegedly had Suryanarayana’s parents killed with a radio bomb at their Anantpur village home.

In revenge, Suryanarayana, a Congress supporter who was not in active politics, allegedly hired a team of seven assassins and had Ravi and six others killed at the Anantpur Desam office during a district conference.

Such killings are the stuff of political lore in the Rayalaseema region, where the film is set. One story goes that the son of an MLA who was beheaded refused to cremate his father’s body till he tracked down the assailants and recovered the head.

M.R.C. Naidu, a social scientist and psychologist, said such killings became common in Rayalaseema in the sixties after the non-Reddys gathered courage to fight the ruling Reddy chieftains of Kadapa, Kurnool, Anantpur and Chittoor districts.

“Rakht Charitra is a rehashed story of what these districts were in the sixties and eighties. It is presented as a fight between the Reddys and the non-Reddys, but in fact it is a story of a social upheaval against feudal chieftains,” he said.

The film has stirred passions in Desam ranks with supporters ransacking theatres in Anantpur, Kurnool and Kadapa districts. They claim the film shows NTR — played by a clean-shaven Shatrughan Sinha — speaking out against local icons, which portrays him in poor light. Also, Sinha’s acting reduces him to a “joker”, they claim.

Following the protests, Varma has apparently agreed to delete some controversial scenes. Tamil actor Surya plays Suryanarayana in the film.