Tollywood Kaburlu

Credits

Banner: Sri Venkateswara Creations

Cast: Prabhas, Kajal Agarwal, Tapsee, Prakash Raj, K Viswanath, Murali Mohan, Nassar, Sayaji Shinde, Brahmanandam, Raghubabu, Master Bharat, Sameer, Kasi Viswanath, Raja Ravindra, Kaushal Prasad, Krishnudu, Subbaraya Sharma, Pragati, Tulasi, Rajitha, Sagar, Satyadev Kancharana

Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Interesting Facts Links: 

https://www.idlebrain.com/celeb/interview/dilraju-mrperfect.html

Prabhas and Dil Raju Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB91VMM9fdk&ab_channel=PrabhasGirlsFC

The basic story idea was born out of the discussions I had with Sirivennela during the lyrics discussion for Parugu movie. I opined that Dasarath could do justice to this kind of script and called him. I asked him to work on this story idea. I liked the way Dasarath contributed to the story and wanted to make a film of 7 to 8 crores budget with a small hero. I explained the story idea casually to Prabhas when I met him. He asked me about the director and I told him that it was dasarath. Prabhas was not excited about the director. I asked Prabhas if would like to get a narration. He was in Malaysia to shoot for Billa (it was in the year 2008). I sent Dasarath across. Prabhas got excited about the first half and expressed doubts regarding a few aspects in the second half. We had worked on those aspects. Prabhas had returned to India in February of 2009, listened to the second half and okayed it.

Lot of my well-wishers and distributors questioned my judgment when I hired Dasarath to direct this film. I introduced several directors to film industry like Sukumar, Boyapati Seenu, Bommarillu Bhaskar, Vamsi Paidipally, Vasu Varma and Srikanth Addala. I liked the approach of Dasarath and wanted him to direct the movie. He has done complete justice to the script.

However, I had taken the best of technicians who worked for me in the past. Devi Sri Prasad composes music for my banner after a gap of 4 years (after Bommarillu). Abburi Ravi pens dialogues after Bommarillu in our banner. Vijay Chakravarthy who worked for my films like Bommarillu and Parugu has done cinematography. Peter Heins is composing fights.

Nobody had expectations on Mr. Perfect till the music was launched. The visuals and trailers have fetched lot of good will and craze in the market. The music composed by Devi Sri Prasad became an instant hit. People and distributors started taking notice of the film and there is very good buzz in the market for Mr. Perfect now.

Actually what happened was they filmed the entire movie from March 2010 to March 2011. But Prabhas watched the final copy and felt the output wasn’t like what Dasardh narrated. He told Dil Raju and he and Prabhas sat in the editing room and on Prabhas’s suggestion, they shot the entire 2nd half again within one month with limited resources and cast dates finalized. That’s probably why the 2nd half feels so weird and cheap production values due to limited time.

90% of it was shot in outdoor locations like Australia, Malaysia, Pollachi, Kerala, Ahobilam etc.

29 crores share and was a super hit at the box office made on a budget of 16 crores. 2nd highest grosser of 2011 after Dookudu

Banner: Sumanth Arts

Cast: Siddartha, Trisha, Srihari, Veda, Santoshini, Nandita, Prakash Raj, Sunil, Tanikella Bharani, Giri Babu, Parachuri Venkateswara Rao, Geeta, Jayaprakash Reddy, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, Chandra Mohan, Narsingayadav, Narra Venkateswara Rao, Abhishek, Raghubabu, Sana, Pavala Syamala, Master Nandu, Gundu Hanmantha Rao

Story: Veeru Potla

Dialogues: Paruchuri Brothers

Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Lyrics: Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry 

Cinematography: Venu Gopal

Editing: KV Krishna Reddy

Fights: Vijayan

Choreography: Prabhu Deva & Vishnu Deva

Producer - Screenplay: MS Raju

Direction: Prabhudeva

Release date: 14th January 2005

Interesting Facts:

In 2004, while filming the song Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana in Varsham movie, MS Raju was watching the song and Prabhudeva was the choreographer. He felt that there is storytelling in the song itself. Gave Prabhudeva a chance to direct. 8 years dream to become a director. Next movie director is you.

Action thriller subject at first Prabhudeva narrated, then MS Raju said lets try do a love story or family movie because Okkadu and Varsham were action films. MS Raju’s writer Veeru Potla said a line. Both MS Raju and Prahbudeva liked. MS Raju said please develop it and in Pragathi Resorts within 70 days, Veeru Potla finished the story.

Parachuri brothers wrote the dialogues and MS Raju handled screenplay, Trisha was cast as she was in the mind of the makers, auditions with everybody but didnt like anybody, Uday Kiran was also considered but Prabhudeva suggested Siddarth’s name, did a look test and he was selected. For brother character, Veeru Potla suggested Srihari, Srihari heard the narration and accepted it.

DSP and Malayalam cinematographer Venugopal, May 14th, 2004 opening muhurtham same day & date when Okkadu and Varsham were launched. Budget was 2.5 crores and planned for Dussera 2004. 

Filmed in Araku Valley and surroundings, Annapurna Studios, and then Ramanaidu Studios. Filmed in 100 working days and budget went to 4 crores.

Titled was Oh Prema Nuvvostanante Nenuoddantana, but MS Raju suggested the change to NVNV, released with 90 prints, clashed with Naa Allude. That was a disaster. Decent openings, then word of mouth picked up and it became a blockbuster.

Struck a chord with people for the beautiful love story and sister sentiment. Sirivennela read the script 10 times before writing the songs. Gave a break to Srihari as a character artist and Siddarth got his breakthrough in Telugu cinema. 

Released with 90 prints and increased to 160 prints later on, 50 days in 80 centers, 100 days in 35 centers, 24 cross gross and 16 crores share, blockbuster at the box office. Sankranthi winner 2005.

Remade in 9 languages highest ever for any film in Indian film history and won 9 Filmfare Awards, the highest ever for any South Indian Film

FIRST TELUGU MOVIE TO WIN AN OSCAR LET'S F GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

CREDITS

Cast: Ram Charan, Jr, NTR, Ajay Devgan (Special Appearance), Alia Bhatt, Samuthrikani, Olivia Morris, Alison Doody, Ray Stevenson, Shriya Saran (Special Appearance), Chatrapathi Shekar, Rajeev Kanakala

Line Producer: MM Srivalli

Second Unit Director: SS Karthikeya

Story by: K.V. Vijayendra Prasad

Dialogues by: Sai Madhav Burra

Screenplay - Direction by: SS Rajamouli

Music: M.M. Keeravani

Cinematography: KK Senthil Kumar

Editing: A. Sreekar Prasad

Costume Designer: Rama Rajamouli

Production Design: Sabu Cyril

Producer: DVV Danayya

Banner: DVV Entertainments

Release Date: March 25, 2022

Interesting Facts

November 18th, 2017 Rajamouli posted a picture on twitter the famous photo of him Tarak and Charan on the couch.

November 19th, 2018 filming officially starts in Hyderabad.

March 14th, 2019 press meet is held announcing the release date of July 30th, 2020

Daisy Edgar Jones who is now a new star in Hollywood was the original choice, for Jenny, she was in Normal People with Paul mescal and When the Crawdads Sing, then it went to Olivia Morris.

Then suddenly pandemic hit and the first promotional video was dropped during March 27th, 2020 when everything was officially shut down with Bheem for Ram video.

October 22nd, 2020 for Komaram Bheem’s birthday they released Bheem’s teaser

Note: Half the visuals in both the teasers didnt make the final cut, Ramaraju teaser the entire forest bit with the torch and arrows, meditation, Bheem version the spear throwing, tidal wave, holding the flag, holding the sankelu,

Release date went from July 30th, 2020 to Jan 14th, 2021, then October 13, 2021 then Jan 7th, 2022 then finally March 25th, 2022 it saw the light of day.

Was supposed to be quickest Rajamouli film but took 320 working days.

Interval scene was filmed for 65 nights, costed 75 lakhs per day adding up to 48 crores in total.

Final budget was 550 crores or about 75 mil USD, most expensive Indian film of all time due to delays, interest, and working days.

Success in USA: released on Netflix in May 2022, On 1 June 2022, RRR was screened in over 100 theaters across the United States for a one night event called "#encoRRRe" The film was re-released by Variance Films and Potentate Films, in association with its original distributors — Sarigama Cinemas and Rafter Creations.

Sold out reception and the rest is history. Audience owned it and word of mouth spread and somehow we are now global. A lifelong dream growing up is now a reality thanks to the western audience.

Surreal to see Ram Charan, Rajamouli, and NTR in the same space as so many Hollywood legends. And two of the most iconic directors of all time especially the two most successful commercial movie directors in Spielberg and James Cameron appreciating the movie. You feel like it’s a dream.

Credits

Banner: RR Movie Makers

Cast: Mahesh Babu, Kajal Agarwal, Prakash Raj, Sayaji Shinde, Dharmavarupu. Nassar, Raza Murad, Brahmaji, Master Akash, Bharat Reddy, Bandla Ganesh

Music: Thaman

Art Direction: Chinna

Lyrics: Bhaskarbhatla

Saw it in theaters for Sankranthi, it was Housefull, interestingly the one Mahesh Babu movie to not make $1 mil in USA probably due to the content it only made $831,895.00, I remember those were the days because Dookudu had just come out and became a blockbuster and Mahesh babu fans were already hype because Businessman was filming and confirmed for Sankranthi 2012, just 3 months after.

Teaser came out, Ila round up chesi confuse cheyyadu, confusion lu ekkuva kottesthanu, hype was at the max. Then trailer came out and increased expectation. I personally loved the movie but it has a few flaws which I’ll explain later.

Interesting Facts

Credits

Banner: SSC Arts

Cast: Sumanth, Kamalinee Mukherjee, Neetu Chandra, Kamal Kamaraju, Tanikella Bharani and others

Music: KM Radha Krishnan

Cinematography: Vijay C Kumar

Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh

Lyrics: Veturi

Choreography: Swarna

Action: Ram Lakshman

Graphics: Firefly Studio

Executive Producer & Cheif Co-director: Anish Kuruvilla

Story - screenplay - dialogues - direction: Sekhar Kammula

Producer: GVG Raju

Release Date: May 16th, 2006

Interesting Facts Links:

https://www.idlebrain.com/news/2000march20/chitchat-sekharkammula.html

https://www.idlebrain.com/movie/postmortem/godavari.html

Writing/Direction: Writing is great, feel good factor, progressive in the sense of not caving into Indian societal standards, and chemistry between the leads is great. Beautiful, natural conversations and its really how you fall in love by spending extensive amount of time with someone. More than that, you’re in the same place and getting to know each other and being vulnerable with each other, attraction is bound to happen.

They also support each other in a healthy relationship. There’s also toxic relationships present here in the form of Raji and Ravi. Ravi is controlling, gaslights her, and doesn’t respect her wishes. Raji is most fickle character.

But the movie has an undeniable charm and feel good factor to it which makes it watchable.

Pacing is very good up until the treasure hunt part and then it dips severely. Dog comedy is cringe, liked it when I was young but the VFX is so bad.

Direction is excellent except the last 30 minutes which extended the runtime and dragged I felt. Other than that, one of Shekar Kammula’s best works.

Symbolism is there in the sense that the boat has a Sita and Ram statues always decorated sort of implying Ram and Sita love story on the boat and then the parrot scene symbolizes that Ram ran away or is going to just like that man’s parrot which leads to Sita’s heartbreak as well as the man’s heartbreak.

Technicalities

Music by KM Radhakrishanan is CLASSIC. All the songs are fire and favorites are Uppongele Godavari and Manasa Gelupu Neede raa.

Veturi’s lyrics of Upppongele Godavari and Manasa Gelupu are OUTSTANDING 

Cinematography by Vijay C Kumar is excellent. Beautifully captured the Godavari river and Papikondalu.

Art Direction by Kishore Chowski is excellent. The design of the boat and the ambience is a feast for the eyes as well as the decorations for the songs.

Credits

Banner: Sri Sravanthi Movies

Cast: Ram, Genelia, Brahmanandam, Sunil, Jayaprakash Reddy, Supreet, Shafi, Bharat, Kota, Nassar, Chandra Mohan, Tanikella Bharani, Srinivasa Reddy, Ravi Varma, MS Narayana, Sudha, Vidya, Surekha, Apoorva, Tamanna (SA) & Navadeep (SA),

Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Interesting Facts

Credits

Banner: Sri Venkateswara Creations

Cast: Siddarth, Genelia, Prakash Raj, Kota, Jayasudha, Sunil, Satya Krishnan, Sudeepa, Dharmavarapu, Surekha Vani, Chitram Seenu, Vijay, Ravi Varma, Neha, Brahmanadham, Tanikella Bharani 

Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Dialogues: Abburi Ravi

Lyrics: Sirivennela, Chandrabose, Bhaskarabhatla, Kula Sekhar, Anant Sreeram

Cinematography: Vijay K Chakravarthy

Art Direction: AS Prakash

Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh

Story - screenplay - direction: Bhaskar

Producer: Dil Raju

Release Date: 9th August 2006

Interesting Facts and Link: https://www.idlebrain.com/movie/postmortem/bommarillu.html

Underrated list:

Viswa

Penchal Das

Kandikonda

Kulashekar

Peddada Murthy

Jonnavitula Ramalingeshwara Rao

Vanamali

Am Rathnam

Vennelakanti

Sahithi

Sira Sri

Krishna Chaitanya

Devi Sri Prasad

Rakendu Mouli

Rahul Ramakrishna

Varikapulla Yadagiri

ES Murthy

Kittu Vissagradaga

Kalyan Chakravarthy

Sanapati Bharadwaj Putrudu

MM Keeravani

Rehman

Credits

Banner: Chai Bisket Films, Lahari Films

Runtime: 123 minutes

Cast: Suhas, Tina Shilparaj, Ashish Vidyarthi, Rohini Molleti, Goparaju Ramana, Sri Gouri Priya

Music: Shekar Chandra and Kalyan Nayak

Cinematography: Venkat R Shakamuri

Editor: Kodati Pavan Kalyan, Siddhartha Thatholu

Production design: Yellayya S

Costumes: Rajini

Lyrics: Bhaskarabhatla

Story - direction: Shanmukha Prashanth

Producers: Anurag Reddy, Sharath Chandra and Chandru Manohar

Release date: 3 February, 2023

Interesting Facts:

Performances: Suhas, Rohini, Adhish Vidyarthi, and guy who plays his friend were excellent,

Writing/Direction: excellent but movie slows down completely during the 2nd half and only picks up during the last 20 mins. Climax is ultimate. Couldn’t stop crying and it’s a great message to society and everything else. Love Rohini Garu so much in movies like Chi La Sow, Rangasthalam, Sita Ramam, Virumaandi, and Ala Modalaindi.

Overall: heart touching, emotional, relatable, and funny, go and watch it, Beautiful family entertainer and these are the types of movies we need to support and watch if we want to grow as an industry.

Credits

Banners: Mythri Movie Makers, GMB Entertainments

Cast: Mahesh Babu, Shruti Haasan, Jagapati Babu, Poorna (special appearance), Rajendra Prasad, Rahul Ravindran, Sampath Raj, Mukesh Rushi, Harish Uttaman, Vennela Kishore, Ali, Subbaraju, Kadambari, Edida Sreeram, Shravan, Sivaji Raja, Sitara, Tulasi, Sukanya, Sana etc.

Cinematography: Madhie

Editor: Kotagiri Venkateshwara Rao

Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Lyrics: Ramajogayya Sastry

Action: Anal Arasu

Choreography: Raja Sundaram, Gayathri Raghuram & Prasanna

Art: AS Prakash

Story, dialogues, screenplay & Direction: Koratala Siva

Producers: Naveen Yerneni, Y. Ravi Shankar & Mohan (CVM)

Release date: 07 August, 2015

Interesting Facts

- Why It Worked: Movie sticks to the story and doesn’t deviate from that. Typical village savior movie but most of the tropes like separate comedy track, hacking goons, making villain bakras and uniting a families and waiting for the Devudu to come save them aren’t there. The movie keeps going as per story requirement. Negatives are the emotions aren’t as strong. Not sure if its the writing or the villainy, but you’re not as emotionally invested. Pacing and writing is superb.