The multi-faceted personality of Tamil cinema, Hiphop Adhi has made a documentary titled ‘Thee Veeran’, which is based on the day-to-day lives and activities of the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue services department during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Hip-hop Adhi says, “It all started last year March when COVID-19 cases were spiking up. During this crisis, I was invited by Mr. Robin, District Fire Officer for a casual visit to Ambattur Fire Station to have a look at the daily activities of the fire department. To me personally, both police and fire department personnel looked the same due to their uniforms. The maximum awareness that I had about fire officers was were their help to the needy at crucial fire accidents. I had no idea about what I was going to experience and nonchalantly spent half a day with them, where my complete perspective about not just their works, but their lives changed. During the toughest and complicated COVID era, where everyone was confined within homes, they came out for the help of the destitute. Although they were frontline warriors during the calamity, they remained happy as a family together within. Such amazing things instilled more positivity and hope in me and I felt such valiant stories must be conveyed to the outside world. We sought two-month time from DFO Robin sir for the circumstances to get normal and started documenting their daily routine works. During this process, almost all of the workers at the fire department became close to us as we kept interacting. To be honest, my outlook on life changed during this period and I thought, translating these experiences into art form will definitely sow seeds of hope and positivity on the barren souls of the needy. It has occurred frequently in my life when I bought a cow out of self-interest and later it paved way for Takkaru Takkaru. Although we had many documentations on many social issues since 2012, Takkaru Takkaru earned us appreciation. Similarly, “Tamizhi” was started on personal interest, took 2 years of our time, and later it was materialized into an 8-episode educational documentary on Tamil scripts. It was the same with ‘Maanavan’, documentation based on the role of youth in the society, had a good impact amongst the youngsters. Needless to say, our one-day tour at Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services department has turned into a year-long journey – THEE VEERAN. There is always hope if we know where to look for. In our case, we found that in our year-long journey filled with Passion, Bravery and Sacrifice. I am extremely happy to have got an opportunity to make this documentary and special thanks to Dr.C.Sylendra Babu IPS., Director of TNFRS for facilitating the whole process. “
