The Hollywood connection to India's Naxal movement

Action and war films from Hollywood are being used as a training tool by Naxals, a senior police official has said.

Recently, a Central Reserve Police Force jawan's body was found with an explosive device surgically implanted inside. Authorities said this tactic was taken straight out of the Oscar-winning war film Hurt Locker.

The Chhattisgarh police recently recovered CD players and CDs of Hollywood movies from a Naxal training camp in Bijapur district. These were action films, depicting commando training, bomb making processes and warfare strategies.

"The forces recovered 8 CDs of Hollywood movies when they busted a Naxal training camp in forests of Pidiya village," said R K Vij, additional director general of police, Naxal Operations.

"CDs of the movies like Behind Enemy Lines, Delta Force, Die Hard, Matrix and God Must Be Crazy were among those recovered from the site," Vij said.

"Prima facie, it appears that Naxals were using CDs for training tribals," he said.

"The proactive measures by security forces have made it difficult for Naxals to hold mass training camps. So they may be taking the help of action films," he said.

A senior official with the Intelligence Bureau also said, on the condition of anonymity, that ultras were using Hollywood movies to "learn offence strategies and to get know-how about the latest weapons for the past several years".

"The recent incident in Jharkhand, where Maoists surgically implanted bomb inside the stomach of a CRPF personnel, (killed in an encounter in Latehar district) was taken from a Hollywood movie," the official said.

"If they are showing films like Behind Enemy Lines and Die Hard for commando training, they are also using movies like God Must Be Crazy (which pits African tribal characters vis a vis the westerners) to hit the sensitivity of tribals," the official said.

"Naxals generally watch Hollywood movies to learn bomb-making processes from foreign countries, and to keep themselves updated about new weapons. They don't have experts in jungle warfare training. So, by watching Hollywood movies, they copy attacking strategies," said Girish Pandey, professor at the Defence Studies at Government Science College at Raipur.

Similarly, the cultural wing of tribals uses popular films as a propaganda tool to brainwash the tribals, he said.