Tollywood Kaburlu

Credits 

Banner: Mythri Movie Makers

Cast: Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, Fahadh Faasil, Rao Ramesh, Sunil, Dhananjay, Ajay Ghosh, Ajay, Jagadeesh Pratap, Anasuya Bharadwaj, Shatru, Brahmaji, Mime Gopi, Shammukh, Kalpalatha, Dayanand Reddy, Raj Tirandasu, Samantha (SA) 

Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Cinematography: Mirosław Kuba Brożek

Editing: Karthik Srinivas

Dialogues: Srikanth Vissa 

Sound Design: Rasool Pookutty

Production Design: Rama Krishna and Monika

Action: Ram Laxman & Peter Hains

Story - screenplay - Direction: Sukumar

Producers: Naveen Yerneni & Y Ravi Shankar 

Release date: December 17th 2021

Interesting Facts

- “The story I narrated to Mahesh Babu was also based on red sander smuggling but that was a while ago. Once I came out of the project, I wrote a different story. I wanted the character attitude.

“And with Mahesh Babu, I couldn’t make him cool. He is very fair. So, the backdrop was the same but the story is different,

Jagadeesh was cast by Sukumar after he watched his performances in the films Mallesham (2019) and George Reddy (2019).[56] In an interview, Jagadeesh Prathap Bandari revealed that he had left 15 smaller projects for working in the film. 

Lots of names at the time were in the news for the item song mainly Disha Patani, but then Samantha who criticized Sukumar’s poster in the past was finally recruited. 

Sukumar said Samantha did hesitate to do the special song initially. 

 But I convinced her, saying that star actresses have been doing it. Pooja Hegde did one in 'Rangasthalam'. I convinced her that she would look great. She said 'no' again. I later called her and requested her to trust me and the title was Ooh Antava sung by Mangli’s sister Indravathi Chauhan and somehow become an nationwide sensation and Samantha’s performance was praised a lot. 

To find the right location, they went to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka literally every forest, finally they settled on Maredumilli till date nobody has covered a movie fully there. 

Speaking in an interview 

The film was shot on multiple sets at Sarathi, Ramoji Film City, Annapurna Studios, and Aluminium Factory. We erected a total of 29 sets in just two months and worked day and night to meet the deadline.

Due to the pandemic, even a forest set was created. A waterfall was created at a bungalow in Jubilee Hills. The scene was to be shot in Kerala but we shifted it here. Looking at the sets, even Allu Arjun couldn’t make out which is real and which one was fake.

Undoubtedly the forest set. Recreating a natural forest was the biggest challenge we faced. So much detailing has gone into the set work that it is highly impossible to make out the difference. Getting permission to put up the sets in the forest was also a daunting task. 

Allu Arjun said that "We had about 400–500 cars in the forest that would take us from point A to B. In some places, there were no roads and we had to create a pathway with whatever was available. 

Srivalli song was filmed in Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu temple on hill and then Ey Bidda Idi Na Adda" (transl. This is my area) song was filmed at the Mallikarjun Swami Temple of Beeramguda. 

Finally movie released on December 17th in competition with Spider Man No Way Home and people rub it in but the movie was a flop in Andhra due to low ticket prices but surprisingly it was ahead of hit everywhere else which is completely unexpected. It was also the only star hero movie to release in 2021 as none of the other 5 heroes had a single release due to Covid. 

Also listed as Rashmi Madona in the end credits. So much disrespect from the team. 

Banner: AVM Productions

Cast: Rana Daggubati, Richa Gangopadhyay, Priya Anand, Kota Sreenivasa Rao, Suman, Suhasini, Subbaraju, Harsha Vardhan, Tanikella Bharani, Rao Ramesh, Ahuti Prasad, Narsing Yadav and Udaya Bhanu (SA)

Music: Mikey J Meyer
Cinematography: Vijay C Kumar
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh

Art Direction: Thota Tharani
Story - screenplay - dialogues - director: Sekhar Kammula
Producer: MS Guhan

Interesting Facts: https://www.idlebrain.com/celeb/interview/sekharkammula-leader.html

Music was launched on November 22nd 2009 in Hotel Marriott. Chiranjeevi and Ramanaidu came as chief guests. Allu Arjun also came to the event along with Nagarjuna and Venkatesh in attendance obviously. Siumanth also came. Basically everybody came can see the audio launch photos. 

Finally movie released on February 19th 2010 and got average talk. 

Coming to box office details according to Sekhar Kammula 

What was the commercial outcome of your last film Leader?

Writing/Direction

Basically this is like an unofficial trilogy of common men becoming CM’s or similar type of guy doing his job as CM honestly with Oke Okkadu, Leader and Bharat Ane Nenu. 

When people said BAN was leader, I didnt believe them but its literally just commercialized version of Leader but done in a way entertaining fashion and in more in depth manner. Leader only covers a few things. 

Main themes are honesty and corruption. Very interesting balance since both are opposite of each other. 

Movie starts off is a never funny way so random. Jeeps come and then suddenly it explodes and and drama builds and there’s reasoning for everything to a point. 

Direction by Shekar Kammula is ok. His writing is good in 1st half and political commentary about politics in his eyes, but a terrible 2nd half along with not deeply exploring the various issues and sectors a CM has to deal with gives a incomplete feeling making Leader an average movie. 

Technicalities

Music and BGM by Mickey J meyer is good. Songs are very good and BGM is in sync with rest of the movie. Got goosebumps at start of Venademataram song and taking. 

Credits

Banner: VMC

Cast: NTR, Bhumika Chawla, Ankita, Seeta, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Brahmanandam, Nasar, Mukesh Rushi, Sarad Saxena, Rahul Dev, Rajan P Dev, Chalapati Rao, Bhanu Chandar, Surya, Hari, Venu Madhav, Rallapalli, GV, Kallu Chidambaram, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, Subbaraya Sharma, Pardhasaradhi, Sangeeta, Hema, Ramya Sri, Sravani, Ragini, Master Sandeep, Master Mahendra

Story: Vijayendra Prasad

Dialogues: Viswanath, Rathnam

Music: MM Keeravani

Songs: Veturi, Sirivennela, ChandraBose, Vennelakanti

Art: Anand Sai

Stunts: A Vijay

Cinematography: K Ravindra Babu

Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao

Co-director: Thota Rama Krishna

Presented by: V Daraswamy Raju

Producer: V Vijay Kumar Varma

Screenplay - Direction: SS Rajamouli

Release date: 9 July 2003

Interesting Facts

Credits

Banner: Bhagyalakshmi Enterprises

Cast:

Nagarjuna Akkineni ... Prakash

Girija ... Geethanjali

Vijay Kumar ... Geethanjali's father

Vijayachander ... Prakash's father

Sumitra ... Prakash's mother

Radha Bai ... Geethanjali's grandmother

Dubbing Janaki ... Lakshmi

Muccherla Aruna ... Doctor

Shavukaru Janaki ... Vice Chancellor (Guest Appearance)

Other Cast: Sutti Velu, Chandramohan, 'Disco' Shanti, Silk Smitha (Guest), Padma, Priya, Neena, etc.

Dialogues: Rajasri

Music: Ilayaraja

Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki, K.S. Chitra

Lyrics: Veturi Sundararamamurthy

Choreography: Sundaram

Art: Thota Tharani

Editing: B. Lenin, V.T. Vijayan

Camera: P.C. Sriram

Producers: C. Praveen Kumar Reddy, P.R. Prasad

Story, Screenplay, and Direction: Maniratnam

Interesting Facts

It took me 9 films to realise my sensibilities. I was instructed by people around me for 8 films to choose a script. Then I realised that it’s not my sensibility. 

That’s when I saw Mani Rathnam’s Mouna Ragam. Films used to be screened just for morning shows during that time. Mouna Raagam ran for an year with morning shows in a theater. I liked Mani Rathnam and went to his home. I use to wait outside his house and say good morning once in every 3 days when he comes out for morning walk at 6:30 am. I did it for one month. Then I asked him to direct me for a Telugu film. He said that he doesn’t know Telugu. I convinced him that his visuals have language and it’s universal. That’s how Geetanjali was made. 

Girija salary was 75,000 rupees and then she had to go back and forth for visa issues as she came from the UK. 

Nagarjuna was paid 6 lakhs 30,000 rupees. 

First copy was readied with 95 lakhs and sold for pre release business of 1.4 crores, giving him a 9 lakhs profit pre release business 

Finally movie released on May 19th, 1989 and first it got flop talk but then became a blockbuster. Interesting fact in Guntur, the movie got a different version. RGV said this in an interview 

A preview screening of Geethanjali was held at Annapurna Studios a week before its release. Many people who watched the film's preview didn't like it. 

A Guntur distributor was very angry after watching the film and didn't like it at all. He told producer CL Narasa Reddy to remove the accident scene, the scene where the hero realizes that he has cancer and the scene where he goes to Ooty. He said that he will pay money only if these scenes are removed. Mani Ratnam was shocked because the entire gist of the film lies in those scenes.

"Mani Ratnam didn't want to remove those scenes. But the producer can't release the film in the Guntur region if the scenes are not removed. Then, Narasa Reddy removed those four scenes and sent the prints to Guntur without Mani Ratnam's knowledge," he further added. Varma went on to say, "The film was eventually released and got a super hit talk. It got a good talk and became a super hit in Guntur as well. 

Later, Mani Ratnam learnt the fact. He then requested the producer to add the removed scenes in the Guntur region as it got good word of mouth. Then the producer told him what is the need to tamper the film which is already having a good run in theatres."

After 2nd week, Mani Rattan said lets dub the movie Idhayathai Thirudathe in Tamil. In Chennai, Coimbatore, Maduri, Trichy in big centers it ran for 100 days, before that it was Maro Charithra which ran for 100 days with 1 show, Geetanjali ran for 100 days with 3 shows which is still an all time record. 

Previously Nagarjuna had many movies dubbed in Tamil but this was the first movie to see such a huge success. 

It released with 16 prints in 20 centers on July 5th, 1989 ran for 50 days in 19 centers and 100 days in 13 centers and it changed Nagarjuna’s status in Tamil cinema as well. 

Credits 

Banner: First Frame Entertainments

Cast: Varun Tej, Pragya Jaiswal, Nikithan Dheer, Avasarala Srinivas, Gollapudi Maruti Rao, Showkar Janaki, Posani Krishna Murali, Satyam Rajesh etc.

Cinematography: Gnana Shekar VS

Editor: Suraj Jagtap & Rama Krishna Arram

Music: Chirrantan Bhatt

Art: Sahi Suresh

Dialogues: Sai Madhav Burra

Lyrics: Seetharama Sastry

Choreography: Brinda

Action: Venkat & David Khubua

Story - screenplay - direction: Krish

Producers: Y Rajeev Reddy & J Sai Babu

Release date: October 22nd, 2015

Writing/Direction

Lot to say but basically as said before it’s first WW2 Telugu movie and I think first WW2 movie in Indian cinema as a whole because there were War movies before like LOC Kargill, Mission Kashmir, Lakshya, these are all based on wars in India itself nothing about World Wars, and actually after researching this is actually first war based backdrop movie in Telugu movie history. 

Krish wanted to talk about love, war and discrimination during 1936 and then 1944 World War 2 times. So he uses a non linear screenplay to convey the same. We have seen similar screenplay type in many other movies but if I’m being honest it didnt work. 

Let’s talk about what did work 

The backdrop is completely new. The authenticity of the sets, costumes, World War 2 atmosphere and real locations offer a fresh feeling and something we have never seen in Telugu cinema to this point. So that entire part feels refreshing. Also Dhupathi Hari Babu characterization is excellently written - he’s a solider, a friend, a husband, a lover, most of all a man with honor and his character arc runs the entire movie basically. 

The following set up and pay offs are good: 

Also the theme that love is a war that needs to be fought so it happens in past and present. 

Themes of caste, hatred, and war are shown in the movie. Caste is the overarching theme which the rich people believes in and look down upon Lower caste and poor people. 

Hatred is tied back into caste but Nazi hatred jews and think they’re evil is basically done in parallel with the caste hence the screenplay going back and forth. He wanted to that Nazi hatred shown in present or caste in villages are the same, both are wrong. 

War as said before. Love is a war so Haribabu fights a war for love and then a war in present day top help the other oppressed by the Nazi’s in WW2. 

Finally he dies sacrificing himself for the cause appudu aina, ippudu aina he tells eeshwar. 

When Eeswhar asks him, Sita’s love made me do it for you and he feels bad as he killed his own sister. 

Climax was very emotional and made me sad. Dhupathi Hari Babu the OG and finally salutes him. Also Gollpaudi garu acting. It worked very well. 

That being said movie does have big flaws 

Direction by Krish is ok

Credits 

Banner: Vyjayanthi Movies 

Cast: Nagarjuna, Sridevi, Pradesh Racal, Kota Srinivas Rao, Gummed, JV Somayajulu, Yamuna, Arun Govil, Sudhakar, G Gopal Reddy, Peketi Sivaram, Kallu Chidambaram, Uttej, Kadambari Kiran, Suryakantam, Annapurnamma, Siilk Smitha (SA)  

Music: Raj-Koti 

Lyrics: Veturi & Sirivennela
Dialogues: Jandhyala
Cinematography: S Gopal Reddy
Editing: Shankar 

Stunts:Babu
Art: B. Chalam
Story - Ganapathi Rao Kommanapalli, Ram Gopal varma 

Screenplay - Direction: Ram Gopal Varma

Interesting Facts

So basically around that time Aswini Dutt wanted to make a movie with Nagarjuna and what happened was Ram Gopal Varma came with two subjects. One is Rangeela and other one is Govinda Govinda. 

He told that he prefers making Rangeela with Nagarjuna (Amir Khan role) and Rajnikanth (Jackie Shroff role). I told him that I wanted to do an action film. 

Since, I am an ardent follower of Sri Venkateswara Swamy, I preferred mixing action thriller with divinity and made 'Govinda Govinda'. The negative points in that films got highlighted and it became a flop. 

For the music Varma wanted to work with Raj koti as he loved them their music and this combination got set and told Aswini Dutt he wants them and said I need to interview them. 

Raj and Koti came to Annapurna Studios and Varma was a huge fan of Entha Gatu Premayo song from Muta Mestri. Varma told them he wanted something like Hollywood composers. Raj and Koti did a lot of research and brought collections and scores and said we are doing the movie. 

They readied the tunes 1 week before and put them in a butta. Pooja happened in Kanipakam and then they came to thirupathi and did the composing at a wedding hall owned by Doraswamy Raju Annamayya producer. 5-6 people batch. 

Started composing at 3:30, first song composed was Oh Naveena, Okayed it, RVg Butta nundi next song was Indira Mundira, next was Amma Brahma Devudo, okayed it, next Andama Anduma and he loved Sridevi so he thought they wrote it keeping her in mind but vaala uddesam adi kaadhu. 

Then Aswini Dutt when Varma listening to another song and pulled him aside and said you’re okaying everything do you know you’re making a movie with Nagarjuna and Sridevi they’ll give you however many tunes you want, Varma replied saying that it looks like they’ve composed these tunes they sound very fresh and they sound good and he got convicted. 

Actually Priya Ragalle song was composed for Govinda Govinda movie and Aswini Dutt loved it but Varma said it sounds too Indianized he begged Varma and Varma said sir ee style naaku nachadu. 

Finally they heard Premante and it got okayed. In 30-40 minutes all the tunes were okayed and they went back Chennai that night only from Tirupathi, They gave the tunes to Sirivennela garu 7-10 days and readied the lyrics. 

Did the recording from 9 AM - 9 PM, Mani Sharma was the keyboard player, Harris Jayaraj 

Hyderabad, Talakona, Ooty, and Bangkok movie was shot. Also filmed in sets at Padmalaya Studios and most of the songs are filmed in India only. 

According to RGV, the censor board cut a lot of scenes due to the controversial nature of the story in relation to Tirumala temple. 

Additionally, apparently there are scenes of the theives climbing the statue to get the Kireetam which were also cut from the final print. 

They reshot the some scenes as he didnt want to cut the scenes and they postponed it. 

Finally movie released on January 21st, 1994 and it was not successful. 

Due to the censor board becoming an obstacle, RGV swore to never make movies in Telugu again and didnt make a movie for a very long time. 

Credits 

Banner: Universal Media

Cast: Siddharth, Shamili, Krishnudu, Napoleon, Sunil, Ali, Master Bharat, Tanikella Bharani, Pradeep Rawat, Surekha Vani, Saptagiri, Rallpalli, 

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Dialogues: Rajasimha
Cinematography: Vijay K Chakravarthy
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh

Stunts: Ram Lakshman
Art: Rajeevan
Story - screenplay - direction: Anand Ranga

Interesting Facts: https://www.idlebrain.com/celeb/interview/anandranga.html

https://www.idlebrain.com/celeb/interview/siddharth-oy1.html

https://www.filmcompanion.in/interviews/telugu-interview/the-result-of-oy-didnt-affect-me-director-anand-ranga-valentines-day-siddharth-yuvan-shankar-raja

Writing/Direction 

Anand Ranga accepted the failures so we can talk about what works and didn’t work. 

What worked 

Characterizations: opposites attract is probably the most apt way of doing these things as Uday is very simple happy go lucky and outgoing, Sandhya is more idealistic and that contrast is there and is well established especially in the Holi scene. 

Honestly the only point of the movie I liked was to fulfill a person’s wish before their death kind of like make a wish foundation, like Sandhya wants to do all these things and since UDay loves her, he fulfills all her wishes since she knows she’s dying but she doesn’t. 

And songs and technicalities are good. 

What didn’t work 

I’m not sure how this is a cult movie in any regard. First of all the main minus in the movie is heroine character. Why because it’s not convincing at all. Ok she’s going to die but in any love story the way that the couple fall in each other is like the most crucial part and here is neither convincing or emotional at all. Ok Sandhya is supposed to change from idealistic into person who enjoys and sees life with all her wishes fullfiledd but the way she changes and why she likes Siddarth is not convincing at all. 

I dont really like love stories openly saying it. To date the love stories I like are Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana and Sita Ramam. That’s it. Everyone said they cried as a kid and even now they cry what a movie what a beautiful movie, ante do I not know how to watch a movie or do other people dint I really dont know but how this is a cult movie I dont know but movie had no emotion. Movie has no comedy, if it does its all cringe and tested patience. 

Also hero character behaves like an aware. He’s so rich but instead of going to office he goes to heroine house and basically like a beware guy tries to win her over. 

Generally when you had a separate comedy track, it was entertaining. But in this movie he tires to bring Sunil into the main plot and then that entire 2nd half of comedy scenes and even in 1st half with krishnudu and everything else was just cringe max and tested patience. Its not funny one bit. 

Then in 2nd half to bring hero and heroine closer to the each other theres train episode with old married couple, she takes ganja and then threatens him with a. Gun and does some other athi I was like what the fuck is going on. 

Also entire 2nd half is literally Bhramotsavam + Manmadhudhu Cheliya song: they go to north india tour and then by cruise, car, boat, helicopter, and train. Movie just goes somewhere and doesnt return. 

Then finally climax comes and when she says I dont feel like dying right now, I felt nothing due to no emotion. First of all hero character connect kale, heroine connect kale so why would I feel anything. 

Overall, I didn’t feel anything. Its not a bad movie at all. Its a one time watch movie which doesnt have any emotion or anything. If not for the masterpiece songs, nobody would even talk about the movie. 

Direction by Anand Ranga is not good. Besides establishing different personalities in characterization of the leads and having good technical sense, there’s very little to actually appreciate in the movie. 

Music and BGM by Yuvan Shankar Raja is MASTERPIECE. Each and Every song is a CLASSOC!

Credits 

Banner: Just Yellow

Dialogues: Gunnam Gangaraju 

Editing: Sudhakar Reddy Sathi 

Art Direction: R Ravindar
Producer: Gangaraju Gunna,, Venkat Dega
Story - Screenplay - Direction: Chandra Sekhar Yeleti
Theatrical release date: 11th April 2003

Credits 

Banner: Lakshmi Productions

Cast: Ravi Teja, Sneha, Ashutosh Rana, Raasi (SA), Srinivasa Reddy, Chitram Seenu, Ramchandar, Tanikella Bharani, Delhi Sakuntala, Brahmanandam, AVS, Venu Gopal, Krishna Bhagavan, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, Ahuti Prasad, Mallikharjuna Rao, Kaushal, Apoorva, Bharat, Sirisha, Suman (SA)

Dialogues: Kona Venkat

Lyrics: Sahiti

Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh

Cinematography: Prasad Murella 

Art: Narayana Reddy

Stunts: A Vijay

Producer: Atluri Purnachandra Rao

Story - Screenplay - direction: Seenu Vytla

Release date: 26th March 2004

Agenda

1) First Impressions

2) How your liking towards it grew

3) Music, Cinematirapghy, Art Direction, Editing

4) Writing and Direction

5) Why it will always be a classic

Credits

Cast: Gopichand, Tapsee Pannu, Shakthi Kapoor, Suman, Ali, etc

Music: Sri

Camera: Shyam Dutt

Art: S Ramakrishna

Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswararao

Dialogues: K.K. Radha Krisha Kumar

Lyrics: Ananth Sriram

Fights: Selva

Story, screenplay & Direction: Chandra Sekhar Yeleti

Producer: BVSN Prasad

Release date: 12 July 2013

Movie collected 13.5 crores share and while it was a safe project for producer but small loss venture for distributors, everyone who bought the movie had small losses so it can be termed as above average movie. 

Writing/Direction

So this is basically National Treasure + Indiana Jones mixed into one. 

Also add the chandamama kathalu in there which I personally never read but I remember when I was young just hearing about Ali Baba and the 40 thieves open sesame etc it’s all there. 

This is given a India Pakistan border conflict with Hinglaj Devi temple backdrop ate serve as catalyst for the story. 

Why it’s National treasure is granfather or relative goes looking for treasure and leaves a treasure map for others to come find it where a mount Ian of wealth lies. There it was Nicolas Cage and then here it’s gopichand. 

Indiana Jones because of the globetrotting adventure aspect. Here they go from one border to the next but this Indiana Jones is the GOAT of adventure movies, oviisuly the comparisons will be there where hero and villains looking for treasures, huge dive into the final location, hero fights villain and something usually happens where treasure gets lost forever. 

Here they talk about partition but everything about it so well done and makes for an intriguing adventure drama in Indian context. 

The last 45 mins however were very good. Classic adventure movie where hero and villain come down to find the treasure and then have a fight for it. Stakes are brilliantly done and movie ends on a cliffhanger actually. We never see what happens to Gautham and his financial satiation but finally koteeswarudu ayyadu. Also that dialogue sums up his characterization: naaku kaanidhi koti rupailu aina voddu, naadhi annadi adha rupailu kuda voddhulukonu. 

Direction by Yeleti is good. But the villains needed to be written better, the movie needed more entertainment to keep pace consistent which would have helped the movie overall. But due to uneven pacing some parts are really good while others are very slow. I think with a director os his creativity we only expect the best and when it has flaws, we feel a little disappointed. 

Cinematography is by Shyam Dutt is excellent! The movie looks extremely rich and grand and also the color palette is basically brown or white along with blue for night scenes but there’s also red and green and the lighting especially is excellent like the scene where they explain theres a lamp in Sulthan’s house and the light will reflect on it and the same thing happens. Overall it’s a visual wonder  and he did an excellent job in terms of the framing, lighting, and overall color palette. 

Art Direction is MASTERPIECE. Adventure movies are a production designer’s dream and literally all of the sets and props are so good especially the climax all of the levels they created are so well done. The props like the locket, books, bag, diary, keys, Bird statue, everything is so well done. Also the location costing deserves a special mention, The rough terrain of Pakistan is seamlessly blended as Ladakh and you actually believe they’re in Pakistan with all the signs around in Urdu. It’s so well done.