Dam 999 movie

A corrupt mayor builds a new dam for political gains and personal glory endangering millions of innocent lives; A mariner desperate to save his sister from evil; Two not-so-young lovers challenging destiny in a bid to unite; A woman on a mission to win her family back; A little boy battling a deadly disease; A devoted wife wants to be with her husband even in death; And the astrologer who has foreseen their ominous fate - Nine lives entwined by the impending disaster. Take the journey of a lifetime - Nine characters, nine moods and a crumbling dam of emotions.

'DAM999 sheds light on the 1975 Banqiao Dam disaster in China that claimed 250,000 innocent lives. In the Indian context, 'Dam 999' serves as a clarion call to action for the Kerala government as recent recurrence of mild tremors in Idukki district in Kerala is causing concern over the safety of the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar Dam, located on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.

As many as 22 mild tremors and after-vibrations have occurred in parts of Idukki and adjoining Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts since January this year, officials said.

Two brief spells of quakes measuring 2.02 and 3.04 on the Richter scale gently shook the area including the dam site last week. The officials in charge of the reservoir spotted two minor cracks on it bottom, believed to have been caused by the latest tremor.

Mullaperiyar dam was built when this part of Kerala was part of the Travancore princely state and Tamil Nadu under the Madras province under the British rule. The dam has since then been a major source irrigation for the agricultural belt of central Tamil Nadu districts.

For the past two decades however, the dam has been a subject of hot dispute between the neighbouring states. While Kerala wants to decommission the structure and build a new one, that idea has not found favour with Tamil Nadu. Apart from local resistance groups, political parties on both sides have often taken aggressive postures on the issue.

In 2006, Kerala government passed the Kerala Irrigation and Water Conservation (Amendment) Act 2006, which prohibited the raising of water level beyond 136 ft in the Mullaperiyar Dam as it was placed under the Schedule of 'Endangered Dams'.

Directed by Sohan Roy, the movie stars Rajit Kapur, Joshua Fredric Smith, Linda Arsenio, Gary Richardson, Jaala Pickering, Ashish Vidyarthi, Vinay Rai, Vimala Raman and Megha Burman.

Click on, for exclusive snaps from 'Dam 999', which will be released on November 25, 2011.