Chiranjeevi’s highly-anticipated upcoming period film Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy official teaser was launched on Tuesday at a grand event in Mumbai. Chiranjeevi will be seen playing the role of freedom fighter Uyyalwada Narasimha Reddy in the film.

The Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy teaser has intense Baahubali vibes and is filled with intriguing glimpses of Amitabh Bachchan, Tamannaah, Kichcha Sudeep, Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi, Jagapathi Babu and Niharika. Amitabh Bachchan features in a significant role as Narasimha Reddy’s guru Gosaayi Venkanna while Tamannaah’s character is titled Lakshmi.

The trailer begins with references to revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Mangal Pandey and Rani Laxmi Bai before introducing Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy. “Woh sher hain… who unka hausla hai…,” says the narrator as Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy features in intense sword fights against the British.

Pages from the life of “the first rebel” Narasimha Reddy have been made alive in the Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy teaser, which is a montage of stunning war sequences that will make you forget blinking.

What History Says

Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy (died 22 February 1847) was a son of an Indian former Polygar.

He was at the heart of a rebellion against the British East India Company (EIC) in 1846, when 5,000 peasants rose up in Kurnool district, then in Madras Presidency and now a part of the state of Andhra Pradesh.

They were protesting British changes to the traditional agrarian system. Those changes, which included the introduction of the ryotwari system and other attempts to maximise revenue, had deprived village headmen and other higher-status people of their role as revenue collectors and position as landholders, while also impacting on lower-status cultivators by depleting their crops and leaving them impoverished.

Things came to a head in 1846 when the British authorities assumed land rights previously held by various people who had died in the villages of Goodladurty, Koilkuntla and Nossum. Encouraged by the discontent of others, Reddy became the figurehead for an uprising.

An armed group, initially comprising those dispossessed of inam lands around Koilkuntla, was led by Reddy in July 1846.

The Acting Collector for the area, J. H. Cochrane, believed that Reddy had material support from fellow pensioners in Hyderabad and Kurnool, whose land rights had also been appropriated.

The group soon attracted support from the peasantry and was reported by British authorities to have rampaged in Koilkuntla, looting the treasury there and evading the police before killing several officers at Mittapally. They also plundered Rudravaram before moving to an area near to Almore, pursued by the British military forces who then surrounded them.

Reddy Captured

A battle between Reddy’s 5000-strong band and a much smaller British contingent then took place, with around 200 of the rebels being killed and others captured before they were able to break out in the direction of Kotakota, Giddalur where Reddy’s family were situated.

Having collected his family, he and the rest of the rebels moved into the Nallamala Hills. The British offered incentives for information regarding the rebels, who were again surrounded amidst reports that unrest was now growing in other villages of the area.

In a further skirmish between the rebels and the British, who had sent for reinforcements, 40 – 50 rebels were killed and 90 were captured, including Reddy.

Warrants were issued for the arrest of nearly 1000 of the rebels, of which 412 were released without charge.

A further 273 were bailed and 112 were convicted.

Reddy Executed

Reddy, too, was convicted and in his case received the death penalty. On 22 February 1847, he was executed in Koilkuntla in front of a silent crowd of over 2000 people.

British kept his head on the fort wall in public view until 1877. The East India Company reported in their district manual of 1886 that

Since 1839 nothing of political importance has occurred, unless we mention the disturbance in 1847 caused by Narasimha Reddy, a pensioned Poligar of Uyyalavada in Koilkuntla Taluk, then part of Cuddapah district. He was a poor man in receipt of a pension of Rs.11 a month. As a grandson of Jayaram Reddy, the last powerful Zamindar of Nossam, he was sorely disappointed when the Government refused to pay him any portion of the lapsed pension of that family. Just before this time the question of resuming Kattubadi Inams has been brought under the consideration of Government, which made the Kattubadis discontented. Narasimha Reddy collected these men and attacked the Koilkuntla treasury, which, however, was well defended. He moved from place to place and sheltered himself in the hill forts of the Erramalas and Nallamalas, and though pursued by troops from Cuddapah and Kurnool, he continued to commit his ravages in Koilkuntla and Cumbum. At Giddalur he gave battle to Lieutenant Watson and killed the Tahsildar of Cumbum. He then escaped into the Nallamalas, and after roving about the hills for several months was caught near Perusomala on a hill in Koilkuntla taluk and hanged. His head kept hung in the fort on the gibbet till 1877, when the scaffold falling into decay, it was not thought necessary to repair it.

Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy will hit the big screens on October 2, 2019 and will be released in five languages – Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada.

Within seconds after official release, the teaser has gone viral on all social media platforms.