WISH to listen to a Bollywood song sung by a Harvard MBA cum IAS officer? Just book your ticket for Dibakar Banerjee’s film Shanghai which is being released today. Srivatsa Krishna, a 1994 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer, sings “Vishnu Sahasranamam Mantra” in Banerjee’s low budget film Shanghai which incidentally has another IAS connection. What’s that? In the thriller, actor Abhay Deol plays the role of a Tamilian IAS officer.
No wonder, the film was screened to 15 IAS officers in Mussoorie Academy on Tuesday ahead of its world premiere at IIFA awards in Singapore. Banerjee’s earlier films, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye and Love Sex aur Dhokha, became quite popular.
But how come this film-maker got a real-life IAS officer to sing for his movie? Krishna, who describes himself as “a proud modernite, vocalist, columnist and PhD student”, was a debating rival of Dibakar Banerjee during their college days. Krishna did his MA in international studies from Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University before getting into IAS. The Hindu newspaper quoted Krishna saying that he recently met Banerjee at a coffee shop and their conversation led Krishna to lend his voice in Banerjee’s film. Shanghai was made with a low budget of Rs 15 crore.
Krishna’s wife Gunjan Krishna, an LLB from Delhi University, is a 2004 batch IAS. The couple had shifted to Karnataka cadre last year on the ground of marriage. Earlier, Mr Krishna was in Andhra Pradesh cadre, and Mrs Krishna belonged to Maharashtra cadre.
Your last para has error. Last time should be Krishna as per civil list not Krishnan (which is the character of Abhay Deol in the film). Also as per Dibakar Banerjee, Srivatsa Krishna, a Tamil Brahmin IAS officer is one of the inspirations for modelling the character of Abhay Deol in the movie.
ReplyDeleteThanks dear reader for spotting the error. We have corrected it. Also, kindly comment about Abhay Deol's performance as an IAS officer after watching the movie.
ReplyDeleteDibakar Banerjee in press conference said the character has been modeled on Srivatsa Krishna and couple other officers
ReplyDeletefurther, it was screened to both Probationers and Phase IV MCTP participants in LBS
ReplyDeleteAccording to many officers in the field , the character has more resemblence to Mr Krishnan of Tamil Nadu Cadre rather than to Mr Srivatsa Krishna
ReplyDeleteBut Mr.Krishnan of Tamil Nadu cadre never worked in a North Indian state, while Mr.Krishna did. Also Mr.Banerjee in his interview to journalists mentioned Mr.Krishna and others from AP cadre as being the role models for the role.
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