Killing Veerappan

Killing Veerappan
Promotional poster
Directed by	Ram Gopal Varma
Produced by	B. V. Manjunath B. S. Sudhindra E. Shivaprakash
Written by	Ram Gopal Varma
Screenplay by	Ram Gopal Varma
Story by	Ram Gopal Varma
Based on	Operation Cocoon
Starring	Shiva Rajkumar Sadh Orhan Sandeep Bharadwaj Yagna Shetty Sanchari Vijay Parul Yadav
Music by	Ravi Shankar
Cinematography	Rammy
Edited by	Anwar Ali
Production company	ZED3 Pictures
Distributed by	G. R. Pictures
Release date	1 January 2016 (2016-01-01) (India)
Running time	151 minutes
Country	India
Language	Kannada
Box office	est. ₹20 crore (US$3.0 million)10 days

Killing Veerappan is a 2016 Indian Kannada-language docudrama film written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film is based on the events leading to Operation Cocoon to capture or kill Indian bandit Veerappan. Featuring Shiva Rajkumar in the central role touted to be based on N. K. Senthamarai Kannan, the then Superintendent of police, with the Indian Special Task Force, and the spy who masterminded Operation Cocoon.

The Kannada version was released in over 200 screens in the state of Karnataka on January 1, 2016. Upon its wide release, critics praised the performances, background score, cinematography, screenplay, casting, and direction. The Telugu dubbed version was released on 7 Jan 2016.

Forest brigand Veerappan (Sandeep Bhardwaj), dominant in Sathyamangalam Forest in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, defies the governments, and Indian Border security paramilitary forces, and maintain a small army. He is wanted for killing approximately 184 people, about half of whom were police officers, including senior police and forest officials. He was also wanted for poaching about 200 elephants and smuggling ivory worth US$2,600,000 and about 10,000 tonnes of sandalwood worth approximately US$22,000,000.

In 1991, Veerappan and his chief Intel Gandhi (Sadh Orhan), behead IFS Officer P. Srinivas (Gadda Viji). Years later, Veerappan avenges the death of his close associate Gandhi by misleading Special Task Force (STF) personnel in their covert operation, through Gandhi's unnamed notorious informer (Aziz Naser). The covet mission led by T. Harikrishna S.P. (Rockline Venkatesh), and his informer S.I. Shakeel Ahmed (Rajesh Nataranga) to kill Veerappan fails miserably. Veerappan, and his army brutally assassinate all the STF officers in the operation, and snatch their arms.