New movie starring Sangliana

Bangalore (UNI): After his successful stint as a super cop and then a popular politician, Mr H T Sangliana, MP, will now tread in the tinselville by donning the grease paint for a Kannada film. The super cop, who has inspired the production of three movies which turned out to be blockbusters, will now face the arclights himself. The former Bangalore City Police commissioner will now act out the role in Santa, retaining his now famous name.

''Till now films were made about me. This is the first time I am acting. I don't think it will be a problem,'' he said, getting ready to don his uniform for the movie, to hit the floors on October 28. The lead role in the film, that of an underworld don 'Santosh' who finally surrenders before the Commissioner, will be played by 'hattrick hero' Shivrajkumar, the son of late super star Rajkumar. The female leads will be played by Arathi Chabbria and Sridevika.

Producers R Srinivasa and K P Srikanth, along with Director S Murali Mohan, had approched the cop when he was still in service. ''I had told them to take permission from the then Chief Minister S M Krishna. They again came back to me a few months ago with the script. I agreed to do it because the story appealed to me. It has a moral message,'' he said. The storyline was inspired by the fact that as police Commissioner, he had reformed over 100 rowdy sheeters in the city. The movie is due for release in January next year.

Mr Sangliana had earned the reputation of a tough cop, taming the likes of Abdul Kareem Telgi, the kingpin of the multi-crore stamp paper scam, and many dons who wreaked havoc in the garden city. He also headed the Special Task Force, constituted to put an end to the notorious poacher and smuggler Veerappan. An Economics graduate from St Edmund's College, Shillong, Mr Sangliana, a multi-faceted personality, had also written three books - 'A Guide to Mizo/English', 'Politics and People' and 'Dos and Don'ts for Security', besides penning over 80 songs and hymns.

Soon after he retired from service three years ago as DGP of Karnataka, the Mizoram-born Mr Sangliana decided to settle down in the State where he had become a popular figure. His life took a decisive turn when he decided to take a plunge into politics. He approached the bigwigs in BJP and got a ticket to contest from Bangalore North. He pulled off a coup of sorts in his maiden battle of the ballots when he defeated one of the seniormost politicians and Union Minister for nearly three decades, Jaffer Shariff.

The 1967-batch IPS official had inspired production of three movies -- two acted by action hero late Shankar Nag and the third by Devraj more than two decades ago.