Engaging Moviegoers in Creating Public Awareness on Legal Knowledge: A Study on Telugu Films

This research work attempts to study legal awareness in Telugu cinema. The films chosen for study are Drushyam (2014), Sapthagiri LLB (2016), RED (2021), Naandhi (2021), Check (2021), Vakeel Saab (2021), and Thimmarusu (2021), which were cinematic portrayals of legal issues. These insight films help reach the audience to influence the thought process and create legal awareness. This study aims to analyse Telugu Cinema's role in bringing legal awareness. The study adopted descriptive analysis and followed the case study method used by Singhal et al. (2006: 203-224). The study combined both interpretations with the visual analysis of films in case studies (Kracauer, 1960). Cinema is the most powerful tool to address societal issues (Chandra, 2019). Initially, Cinema started to entertain a mass audience. Still, later some directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha, and others began educating the public about social issues with their movies. Many people say that people live and breathe movies in India, and that's somewhat true. Movies cast a profound impact on our lives, especially when a story or character strikes into our hearts. Sometimes films are inspired by real-life incidents, and sometimes it's the other way around. For instance, remember Rang De Basanti (2006)? The whole candle-light protests evolved from there (Satija, 2018). Many movies in India proved their impact on society; Section 375 (2019), directed by Ajay Bahlm, showed the significant causes of defamation of the judiciary and police system in this movie. It talks about a junior costume stylist (Anjali) who goes to her boss's house to approve designs, which forces her as he kisses and grabs her. She charges him rape, and her boss denies it as he was married. Then he was held guilty and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. Pink (2016), directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, witnessed many legal issues. It informs the audience of Zero FIR and that juveniles and women can obtain bail even for offences not subject to bail. Most of the audience was unaware of this information about people's rights until it was given to them.

Tamil movie Sarkar (2018), directed by AR Murugadoss, has raised awareness among the public regarding fraud voting. Even in Tollywood, many directors like Kodi Ramakrishna, Dasari Narayana Rao, R. Narayana Murthy, Sekhar Kammula, Neelakanta, and others have made some movies based on social issues. Movies Rythanna (2021) and Veera Telangana (2010), directed by R. Narayana Murthy, will showcase the problems of Farmers in society; he gave some solutions to the problems with his movies. Legendary director Dasari Narayana Rao directed his 149th film Young India (2010), on youth responsibility towards society. Some directors like Kodandarami Reddy, Vijay Kanakamedala, Venu Sriram, Kishore Tirumala, and others educated the audience about the legal issues with their movies. In recent times, Telugu cinema has changed with some innovative storytelling styles directors are educating the public and entertainment. In films like RED (2021) and Sapthagiri LLB (2016), directors convey their message to the audience in the most entertaining way. Even star actors like Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan are interested in creating legal awareness in society with their films; this has been proved with movies like Abhilasha (1983) and Vakeel Saab (2021). After watching the Naandhi (2021) movie, High Court lawyer Gopala Krishna Kalanidhi interviewed a popular YouTube channel, ""Telugu Legal Focus"", in which he explained the importance of Section 211. After the release of Vakeel Saab (2021), a woman from Chennai came to her hometown to file a case against his minor daughter, who went missing in Chennai. The police said that as soon as the complainant went to them after the Chennai police failed to act on her complaint and investigate, they had already filed a zero-FIR. This research aims to study Legal Awareness in Telugu Cinema in this context.

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