Cop on a mission!

Mumbai police Senior Inspector Dayanand Nayak's life story reads like the script of a blockbuster film. Which is why it is not surprising that there are at least three commercial films being made on his life.

One film is being made in his home state, Karnataka. Saikumar, who specialises in acting as a police officer in both Telugu and Kannada films, will reprise Nayak in this movie.

Director Anand P Raju spent three weeks with Nayak in Mumbai. Raju travelled around with him whenever possible on duty, studying his mannerisms and working style. He returned to Bangalore with a lot of video footage on Nayak, which Saikumar has been studying ever since.

Raju says he had invited Nayak to sound the clapper for the film's mahurat some weeks ago. Nayak, however, could not make it because he got caught up with the bomb blast investigations. Eventually, popular star Sudeep did the honours.

Nayak hails from the village of Yennehole in Dakshina Kannada district's Karkala Taluk. Incidentally, a large chunk of the Mumbai underworld that he is fighting every day also comes from the same section of coastal Karnataka. Nayak came to Mumbai as a schoolboy; he worked at menial jobs by day and studied at night to join the police force. He joined the Maharashtra police force in 1996. Nayak is now with the criminal intelligence unit.

Over the past seven years, he has reportedly killed 83 men in encounters, earning him the label of Encounter Specialist. He is also credited with having arrested around 350 mobsters. Two years ago, some members of the Chhota Rajan gang were shot in an encounter that was the result of a combined effort by the Mumbai and Bangalore police. The team included Nayak.

Director Raju has hired Nayak's friend, Cheetah Shetty of Mumbai, to direct the stunts in his venture.

"Nayak is not only a daring policeman but also a wonderful human being," says the filmmaker. "I want to bring out all these dimensions of his personality in my film."

Saikumar, who is older than Nayak, is thrilled about his new role. "It is an action-oriented role," he says. "There is not too much dialogue for this character. In fact, for the first time, even my mahurat shot had no lines of dialogue, just facial expressions."

There have been other successful films on the lives of real life policemen in Karnataka. Sangliana, based on the life of recently retired police officer T Sangliana, which had the late Shankar Nag as its hero, did so well that a sequel was made for it. Another film based on the life of super cop Kempaiah, which had Shashi Kumar as its hero, fared fairly well some years ago.

Raju and senior journalist Harish, whose script this film is actually based on, hopes that this one will outdo all the others.

Photo: K M Veeresh

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