Police Officer: Real to reel Madan Mallu's Kannada film based on a true story

They were young, in love, very British, and into drugs. The combination proved quite lethal for James Williams Stewart and Rosena Barker. Stewart was killed, while Barker was brutally raped by an autorickshaw driver in Bangalore in 1996.

The Kannada film, Police Officer, running to reasonably good houses all over Karnataka since its release last Friday, is based on this strange double crime that took place one night in Bangalore. At first, the police were foxed because it looked as if the same gang had attacked the couple at two different locations in Bangalore.

Later, they found it was sheer coincidence that a miscreant assaulted Barker on the same night that her lover was done to death by some other young men.

Barker and Stewart had dined at a small eatery, after which Barker complained of stomachache. She left the restaurant and caught an autorickshaw to return to her lodgings.

The autorickshaw driver abducted her, took her to a lonely spot and raped her. Meanwhile, her boyfriend finished his dinner, paid for it and came out of the hotel. He approached some men who were standing around and asked them where he could buy some drugs. When they saw his pouch full of notes, they struck him down and ran off with his money. He died soon after.

The Karnataka police and government took these crimes seriously --- they were afraid it would ruin the image Bangalore enjoys of being a tourist destination. Besides, since the case had transcontinental ramifications, they were under pressure to solve it very quickly. In a record 13 months after the incident, the independent culprits were all apprehended, charged, even sentenced.

Barker's rapist, police sources say, will shortly complete his sentence and be out of jail, while Stewart's assailants still have a long way to go. The Karnataka government actually paid for Barker to come to Bangalore twice, once to identify her attacker and the second time to testify against him in court.

This crime attracted music director Madan Mallu's attention. He recognised its potential to become a good crime movie. Last year, after completing Andhra Hendthi, his third film as producer (his first two being Maha Chatura and Indian), Mallu decided it was time he tried his hand at producing a crime film.

He began by approaching his many friends in the Karnataka police force, who refreshed his memory on this dreadful crime. He interviewed many leading police officers in Bangalore like Ashok Kumar and Bawa on some of their most sensational crime cases, and wove these stories into his main theme as sub plots.

He signed Anand P Raju, who has several Kannada movies on police work to his credit, to direct his film. Charanraj and Thriller Manju, were signed on to play the roles of the two police officers who solve this double crime and Shobhraj for the rapist's role.

Mallu's brother, Shivamaya, who had earlier scored for films like Police Dog, was signed to score the music for Police Officer.

He wanted British actors to play the victims. "I wanted them to speak with the proper British accent in the film," explains Mallu. "And to look the part of tourists straight out of Britain, not some tanned and Indianised Brits who have lived in India for years."

He asked a friend in London to advertise in the local dailies for a young couple. The friend, Sridhar, finally chose a young student couple, Lillen Goldberg and Clara, for the roles. The couple came down to Bangalore last August. "I deliberately asked for a couple who were romantically involved, as that would make it less expensive and easier for me all the way around," explains Mallu.

Raju and Mallu met Goldberg and Clara and narrated the story to them scene by scene. He completed their scenes in the first schedule of the film, spread over just 18 days, and sent them on a tour to the rest of India before their return to UK.

On their first visit to India, it took only a few days for the young couple to get used to the country. "We only had to order pizzas and sandwiches for a couple of days for them," recalls Mallu. "After that, it was idli sambar and bisibele bhaat (khichdi with vegetables) all the way!"

"Surprisingly, both of them acted like naturals," recalls director Raju. "They might have had some stage acting experience with student theatre in UK, but they had certainly never emoted for the camera before. Considering that, they did remarkably well, much better than so many new Kannada artistes we have who look so wooden on screen."

Was Mallu not afraid to make a film with no popular actors? "I have made films with top stars that have only given me top losses!" he replies cynically. "I have lost about Rs 13 million personally in making films so far. This film was made on a budget of Rs 0.6 million. My intention was to make a film close to a documentary. One that would fetch me film awards and honours. At the same time, earn money from the box office collections."

The couple threw themselves so much into their roles that Goldberg could not bare to watch Clara act out her terror in the rape scene, and would turn his face away in distress. Clara, in turn, had tears streaming down her face when the scene was over, and was too distressed to continue for the day. "She was very good in the scene in which she has to identify her attacker in police lock-up," recalls Charanraj.

"It was the experience of a lifetime," exclaims Goldberg. "I am sure we will never get the opportunity to act in another Indian film! It was all great fun." Adds Clara, "I never expected to feel all I did when I acted in the film. I understood, in a very personal manner, for the first time, the emotional trauma women victims go through with an attack of this kind."

In the film, Goldberg and Clara travel through Pakistan, Afghanistan and SEA to North India, where they see the Taj Mahal and Charminar, and then come down South. They chance upon a huge procession of autorickshaw drivers worshipping Goddess Annamadevi, with song and dance. The couple photographs the procession and even dance along with it, beside producer Mallu, who also plays the part of an honest autorickshaw driver in the film.

In a fictitious subplot, Mallu as the honest driver manages to stop a young man from selling his girl friend into prostitution, after robbing her jewellery.