U Turn tonic for Palike engineers

Movies can inspire. And, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) wouldn’t disagree, given the lessons on proper maintenance of roads and effective traffic management embedded in the super hit Kannada film U Turn.

On Friday, the Palike booked tickets in bulk for 265 of its engineers at Gopalan Mall on Mysuru Road to watch the horror flick in the hope that it would bring about an U-turn in the callous way the civic agency functions.

From assistant engineers to Engineer-in-Chief M R Venkatesh were present at the behest of BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad who was “inspired” by the feedback about the movie, especially from Rajajinagar MLAS Suresh Kumar.

The film revolves around the chaotic Richmond Road flyover in Bengaluru. “I have read some reviews and Suresh Kumar too had suggested that I watch the film. Since it’s about the city roads, I felt each of us dealing with roads and other civic infrastructure must watch it. So, we booked the tickets in bulk,” said Prasad.

The news about BBMP’s key personnel watching the movie and booking so many seats in a single cinema thrilled the filmmaker Pawan Kumar. “It’s very good. It’s really happening,” quipped Kumar.

On what prompted him to make ‘U-Turn’, Kumar said it all happened when he was driving towards Double Road in Shantinagar and spotted concrete blocks, meant to be medians, lying haphazardly on the Rich Road flyover.

 “They could lead to fatal accidents and injuries. So, I felt I must take up this issue. A documentary or a short film would have sufficed. But I ended up making ‘U-Turn’,” he said.