controlling forest fire ! - Allu Arjun's Pushpa !!

In the 1990s, Pushpa Raj, a labourer, decides to smuggle red sandalwood, a rare wood in high demand that only grows in the Seshachalam Hills of the Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh with his friend sidekick Keshava. When DSP Govindappa and his team raid the forest for apprehending the coolies and seize the stock, Pushpa hides it, gets arrested and brutally beaten for revealing the location of wood. Pushpa's employer, smuggler Konda Reddy and his brothers bail Pushpa out for the stock's location and he eventually rises through the ranks by suggesting novel ideas to smuggle the stock earning Konda Reddy's trust and becoming his 5% partner, while also simultaneously receiving hatred from Konda Reddy's youngest brother Jolly Reddy   !!!!  - the plot of Pushpa !

Pushpa: The Rise – Part 01  released in 2021 was a mega hit Telegu film  written and directed by Sukumar, starring Super Star Allu Arjun as the titular character

It is a well-known fact that Telugu superstar Allu Arjun’s pan-India film Pushpa was a phenomenal success. His acting, swag, dialogues and dance moves took the internet by storm and gave birth to several viral memes. Rashmika Mandanna was loved for her role as Srivalli. Now, the film’s sequel Pushpa: The Rule is all set to entertain the audiences with its production underway. The latest buzz surrounding Pushpa 2 is that the makers are reportedly demanding a staggering Rs 1,000 crores or more for the theatrical rights deal for all languages, reports Siasat.com. The publication further suggests that the buzz surrounding the Hindi and Telugu versions of Pushpa 2 remains strong, and the film is expected to outperform SS Rajamouli’s RRR, which grossed a whopping 900 crores in theatrical rights.

Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames are produced. The flame is the visible portion of the fire. Flames consist primarily of carbon dioxide, water vapor, oxygen and nitrogen. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to produce plasma. Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities outside, the colour of the flame and the fire's intensity will be different. 

A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire (in Australia), desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, prairie fire, vegetation fire, or veld fire  Wildfires are distinct from beneficial human usage of wildland fire, called controlled or prescribed burning, although controlled burns can turn into wildfires.

Inspired by the movie ‘Pushpa’, Solapur forest department staffers have put up posters with a ‘filmy’ warning to curb jungle fire incidences that occur occasionally during this time of year.

TOI reports that such posters have come up at some 25 places in six forest ranges spread across 11 tehsils of the district. The posters display a photo of filmstar Allu Arjun, who plays the central character in the south Indian blockbuster and spouts the tagline translated into Hindi as: “Jungle mein fire nahin, flower hone chahiye” (not fires, but flowers should bloom in the jungle). The posters put up by forest guards also carry a cautionary note, saying that if anyone is found lighting a fire in the jungle, they face a fine of Rs.5,000/-  and a jail term of two years upon conviction.

The movie ‘Pushpa’ is about the smuggling of red sandalwood from the forests of Andhra Pradesh. Forest guards further said they want to highlight that much like the Pushparaj character in the movie, they will not bow down (dialogue “jhukunga nahi”) to those deliberately causing forest fires. Explaining that they oversee ‘dry tropical deciduous thorny’ forest land, Dhairyashil Patil, deputy conservator of forest for Solapur, said, “The guards came up with idea to create awareness among locals, mostly farmers, as well as travellers, who pass along roads going through the jungles. We mostly have grasslands, unlike the Western Ghats, where there are tall trees and moist weather. Since the temperature is relatively high is Solapur these days, the leaves of thorny bushes and grass tend to catch fire easily and it spreads rapidly.”

Interesting !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
9^th Mar 2023.