Credits
Banners: United movies
Cast: Ram, Rakul Preet Singh, Sonal Chauhan, Sai Kumar, Ravu Ramesh, Brahmanandam, Jayaprakash Reddy, Raghu Babu, Supreeth, Brahmaji, Subbaraju, Abhimanyusingh, Vennela Kishore, Prabhas Srinu, Fish Venkat, Tejaswini etc
Cinematography: Sameer Reddy
Editor: Goutham Raju
Music: SS Thaman
Lyrics: Bhaskarabhatla, Sri Mani
Art: A.S. Prakash
Action: Ram-Laxman, Vijay & Stunt Shiva
Choregraphy: Raju Sundaram
Story: Veligonda Srinivas
Dialogues: Anil Ravipudi
Screenplay & Direction: Gopichand Malineni
Producer: Paruchuri Kireeti
Release date: 29 May, 2015
Context: If you remember correctly this movie came in peak summer season in 2015 with no competition, I was in senior year of HS with about two weeks left for finals it came on May 29th, 2015. Liked the songs before release binged them and then saw the trailer and was like I’m not doing anything better this weekend so my dad and I went. The theater was so full that my Dad and I were the only people in the theater. But we enjoyed it timepass. For some reason, just was in the mood to rewatch it again. And it was below average movie. First half was good but 2nd half tested patience like anything.
Interesting facts
I gave dates to producer Paruchuri Prasad during the shoot of Balupu. Ram wanted to do a film right from Don Seenu days. I was doing a script for Allu Arjun - Dil Raju combination film. It was a family entertainer. Meanwhile Paruchuri Prasad delivered Shadow and he was in urgent need to make an entertainer. He has asked me to start the project asap. After taking permission from Dil Raju, I went to Paruchuri Prasad.
I needed a good script in minimal time. That’s when VV Vinayak has suggested a story written by Veligonda Srinivas. I listened to the story and liked the idea. We took the raw story (Me, Kona Venkat, Veligonda Srinivas and Anil Ravipudi) and developed into full-fledged script. In 3 months, we had the perfect script.
We had pooja ceremony on May 17 and started to shoot the film on 1st June. We were affected by two big strikes in Telugu film industry. We also had a cast containing 30 people. It became difficult to get back the dates due to strike. However, the total number of working days is just 92 which is fair for a big budget film.
You will see a stylish new look for Ram in this movie as we hired Baski who is instrumental in Prabhas having great looks in Mirchi movie.
Hansika was cast as the female lead but replaced with Rakul due to dates issue. They also tried to get Jagapathi Babu as villain but it didnt work out. For 2nd heroine tthey asked Catherine Tresa but she said no due to wanting to focus on female leads not supporting roles. Finally in July 2014 they casted Sonal Chauhan as 2nd lead.
Due to delay in music sittings filming began June 16th, 2014 in Hyderabad. Initially they wanted to film in the United States but for some unknown reasons they changed the location to Lisbon Portugal for the outside India portions.
Pollachi, Annapurna Studios, Ramoji film City, and climax was filmed at Samalkota.
May 1st 2015 audio and theatrical trailer launched on May 1st at JRC Convention Center in Hyderabad. Initially they wanted to release on may 15th but got postponed to May 29th.
Movie released in 525 centers and 750 locations overall. and people said timepass routine commercial template and format. But in summer with AC people went and enjoyed.
Sold for 16 crores and collected 15.44 crores share and ended up as above average. With satellite and audio rights movie was likely a hut but dont know.
Writing/Direction:
Interesting writing happens in the form of Rakul Preet’s character and interval twist. You won’t expect that Ram planted everything and Rahul Preet’s character as a treehugger generates a lot of entertainment and gives a fresh feeling for heroine’s personality.
Comedy and jokes are excellent in 1st half with Vennela Kishore and JP Reddy but then 2nd half, honestly its so exhausting.
