Chennai, Jan 23 (IANS): Looking to pay tribute to the revolutionary heroes who fought for the country's freedom, actor Chethan Cheenu, known for his performances in 'Karungali' and 'Naan Sigappu Manithan' in Tamil and 'Raju Gari Gadhi' and 'Mantra 2' in Telugu, has now done a photoshoot, dressed as 12 different freedom fighters.

These pictures will be released one by one from 10.05 a.m. on Republic Day (January 26) as a tribute to the iconic heroes.

The 12 freedom fighters that Chethan Cheenu has portrayed in his photoshoot are V.V.S. Aiyar, Alluri Sitarama Raju, Udham Singh, Velu Thampi Dalawa, Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Sangolli Rayanna, Mangal Pandey, Rani Velu Nachiyar, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Sukhdev Thapar and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

Talking about the initiative, Chethan Cheenu said he discussed this idea with his sister a few years ago.

"This initiative had actually started for a film. I wanted to represent some freedom fighters on screen and started researching about them. But during the discussion, we realised that it would be a huge expense to turn this attempt into a film. So, we thought of pitching this idea to various directors and producers through photography. Following this, we held a calendar photoshoot with 12 freedom fighters," he said.

Chethan Cheenu said the making video of the photoshoot would also be released in the coming days.

He said that Kamal Haasan was his inspiration for this project.

"I would be very happy and satisfied if I could achieve at least one percent of what he did," he added.

He also said that those who saw the photoshoot had appreciated it a lot.

Chethan Cheenu, who started his acting career as one of the child artistes in director Mani Ratnam's 'Anjali', will next be seen playing the lead in 'Vidyarthi' ('Manavan' in Tamil).

Also, he plays the lead role in a multilingual film directed by actress Kaveri Kalyani.