Film on Shirdi Sai Baba
Jagadguru Sri Shirdi Sai Baba, a film on the life of Shirdi Sai Baba, was�launched at a function in Hyderabad on Thursday last week. Mohan Babu sounded the clapboard for the first shot; chief guest Home Minister K. Jana Reddy switched on the camera. Director B. Gopal was also present on the occasion.
G. Ramakrishna is the director of this devotional flick, which will have noted director B.V. Reddy not only donning the title role, but also producing the film under the banner of SRR Creations. The film also has Nagababu, Suman, Siva Parvathi and Siva Krishna in other important roles.
The film is currently being shot at five different sets of a Shirdi village, erected in Jubilee Hills. Set to be completed in three schedules, it has music scored by Lalit Suresh.
Shirdi Sai Baba, who is regarded as a saint by both�Hindus and Muslims,�is beleived to have�lived from 1835 and 1918. Sai Baba was relatively unknown until the 1970s. Some of his Hindu devotees believe that he was an incarnation of Shiva or Dattatreya, although this is a recent claim. Baba reportedly arrived at Shirdi village in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, when he was about sixteen years old. It is generally accepted that Baba stayed in Shirdi for three years, disappeared for a year and returned permanently around 1858.
Shirdi Sai Baba led an ascetic life, sitting motionless in an asana under a neem tree and meditating. There are many stories of the miracles he performed. According to some locals from Shirdi, he was a social worker more than a person having any miraculous powers. His most concise message for one and all alike was "Why fear when I am here?"
