His life story was also the subject of an Indian movie that was shown on Netflix. The movie RRR ('Rise Roar Revolt') is a mix of fact and fiction. So, did one of the heroes of the movie, Komaram Bheem, really live? The definitive answer to this question is yes. Yes, there was such a person.
RRR, one of the biggest films to come out of India, has finally been released nearly four-and-half years after it was announced. The film tells an imagined story between two real life heroes – Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem – played by Ram Charan and Junior NTR.
Komaram Bheem is a revered leader hailing from the Gond community in Telangana. He led an uprising against the last Nizam of Hyderabad and exploitation of local landlords in the early 1900s. While the exact date of his birth is unclear, he is believed to have been born around 1900.
Despite being one of the great Adivasi leaders, Bheem’s story has been erased from history texts.
Since his childhood, he did not have a formal education and spent most of his childhood in the forest.
He led guerrilla warfare against the Nizam’s army from 1928 to 1940. He demanded a separate Gond state independent from the Nizam. Unable to quell the uprising, the Nizam government planned to kill him. On October 18, 1940, early in the morning, three years into the rebellion, policemen surrounded Jodeghat, looking for Bheem. Armed with axes, sickles and bamboo sticks, Bheem and his aides refused to surrender. The Nizam officials opened fire, killing Bheem and many others. Bheem was shot until his body “became like a sieve” and was burned unceremoniously.
Incidentally, this is not the first time that these heroes have been portrayed on screen. Bheem’s story has also been told before in a 1990 Telugu film titled Komaram Bheem, directed by Allani Sridhar.
RRR Official Trailer