Rakta Charitra

Rakta Charitra (transl. History of Blood) is a 2010 Indian biographical political action thriller film directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Prashant Pandey. Based on the life of Paritala Ravindra, the film features an ensemble cast of Vivek Oberoi, Sudeep, Shatrughan Sinha, Abhimanyu Singh, Radhika Apte, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Sushant Singh, Raja Krishnamoorthy, Zarina Wahab, Sushmita Mukherjee, Vishwajeet Pradhan and Ashish Vidyarthi. Shot simultaneously in Telugu and Hindi, with the latter titled Rakht Charitra, the film was released on 22 October 2010. A direct sequel Rakta Charitra 2 was released later that year. Upon release, the film received controversies for its portrayal of extreme violence and political content, however was met with widespread critical acclaim, with praise towards the story, screenplay, direction, cinematography, dialogues, and realistic approach. Due to the film's depiction of extreme violence, multiple scenes and dialogues were removed from the A-rated theatrical version; the U/A rated home media version itself re-censored and deleted around seventeen minutes of footage, and as such, the theatrical version has become rare. Despite emerging as a flop during its theatrical run, the film has gained cult status and is regarded as one of Oberoi's best performances and Varma's best works.