Hollywood to make film on weeping jumbo Raju

Raju is now being nursed back to health at the Wildlife SOS India’s care and conservation centre.

Agencies/New Delhi

The story of Raju, the Indian elephant who wept when he was freed after 50 years in chains, is to be made into a Hollywood film, the wildlife non-profit that rescued him said yesterday.

Raju was emaciated, dehydrated and had hundred of wounds over his body when he was rescued from an abusive owner by activists of Wildlife SOS India on July 4 in the town of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh state.

“He was near death as he was bound in spiked chains and forced to beg on the streets by his owner,” Geeta Seshamani, co-founder of Wildlife SOS India, said.

“The chains around his legs had spikes which were cutting into his flesh - and each time he moved pus would ooze out of wounds. Pain and brutality were all he knew,” Seshamani said.

The owner had plucked all the hairs from Raju’s tail to sell as good luck charms, and had starved him so was reduced to eating litter, paper and plastic.

“When our activists accompanied by forest officials and policemen released him from his chains, tears rolled down from his eyes,” she said.

Hollywood producers Larry Brezner and Vijay Amritraj have acquired the filmmaking rights to Raju’s story, a spokeswoman for the wildlife group said.

The film is to be produced by Amritraj’s son Prakash and is expected to be released in 2015, Times of India newspaper reported.

Raju is now being nursed back to health at the Wildlife SOS India’s care and conservation centre.

 “We are disheartened to learn that we have to fight once again for Raju’s freedom,” Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder of Wildlife SOS India, said.

Amritraj told the Times of India that he had found Raju’s story saddening, yet incredibly inspiring.

“For all three of us (Brezner, Prakash and me) it was exciting to see that a taste of freedom can make even an animal cry,” Amritraj was quoted as saying.

He said the film was sure to find an audience across the world as it would tell a moving tale of the trauma animals go through in captivity.

The key characters in the film are expected to be based on Satyanarayan and Nikki Sharp, head of the Wildlife SOS Foundation, who were instrumental in the rescue.

Raju’s owner has, however, filed a petition in court demanding the elephant be returned to him.

The man, reported to be a drug addict, has not yet been prosecuted for his treatment of the elephant, though Indian authorities are reportedly considering charges.