Tollywood Kaburlu Teja Rao

Credits

Banner: DVV entertainment

Cast: Mahesh Babu, Kiara Advani, Prakash Raj, Sarath Kumar, Rao Ramesh, Devaraj, Posani Krishna Murali, Brahmaji, Ravi Shankar, Yashpal Sharma, Anish Kuruvilla, Ajay, Rahul Ramakrishna, Shatru, Devadas Kanakala, Prudhviraj. Jeeva, Suriya, Sithara, Aamani, Banerjee, Rajitha Music: Devi Sri PrasadCinematographer: Ravi K. Chandran & ThirunavakkrasuLyrics: Ramajogayya SastryProduction design: Suresh SelvarajanEditor: Sreekar Prasad

Fights: Ram Lakshman Story, Screenplay, Dialogues, Direction: Koratala SivaProducer: DVV Danayya

Release date: April 20th, 2018

Interesting Facts: 


Mahesh Babu inspiration to play the character is his brother in law politician Jayadev Galla who also studies in America, the way he conducts himself, and in parliament videos he also says Madam Speaker 
Mahesh babu got tension when he Koratala said CM character as he’s not into politics, he got excited after a 10 mins narration, then 15-20 minutes and then in Bangkok in a health resort 5 hours narration: 1 day 2.5 hour narration first half, 2 days later 2.5 hours 2nd half narration, his first question was how are we gonna have 5 hours, how are gonna condense it down to 3 hours, after watching the final copy we feel could have made part 1 and part 2 because we left out so many scenes 
For the assembly scenes they didn’t want to cut the flow so Mahesh did what he calls master scenes which means they run the entire 5-8 page scene entirely without any breaks or lag and everyone is rehearsed all artists with 2-3 cameras, as you can see in the film they came out superbly with a lot of tension and intense dialogues and Mahesh found it difficult to pronounce the political dialogues. It was one of the first schedules they did for the film and they all clicked a photo together in the Assembly set 
Talking about the assembly set, Koratala Siva said it was all due to Suresh Selvarajan’s team and detail and worked on the film for 1.5 years. At max they will give one week to shoot in Assembly in Hyderabad and one week doesnt justify a set so let’s go other states like Bhopal, Kerala, and they saw it and felt our nativity isn’t there. They said let’s stay for 10 days to do some set work but they didnt allow it and they said shoot it as is. Lastly after doing some research for the Andhra Assembly, they built the set in Annapurna Studios for a cost of 2 crores 
About the first oath, Mahesh said that they filmed the scene in Lucknow first, after filming told Siva that let’s take proper care to dub. That January they filming the climax and Mahesh was filming the in the dust and then on jan 26th, media team came up with the idea of the first oath but I have to dub it right and later that evening we will do it
First Devi and Koratala composed a different introduction song, but then after first oath used BGM to make 1 min rough cut
Tuck for the chief minister was done as part of a look test in Mumbai 
Spent 4 crores for a set for the song of Vachadayyao Saami in an open ground in Hyderabad. It was built just for the song and they destroyed it after. 
Kiara Advani was selected as the heroine marking her Telugu debut and also marked Farhan Akhtar’s Telugu singing debut with the song I don’t know
Plus everybody knows, there was a fight in the movie known as Holi fight. When Bharat (Mahesh Babu) develops closeness with his brother, both go out to play Holi, their faces smeared with colours. Then comes the fight sequence. Though they had shot the scene for nearly three days, the makers had to delete it. Fans have been asking and even after 6 years they still haven’t released it. 
Finally movie released on April 20th, 2018 to good talk. Overall movie collected about 95-100 crores share and was above average to hit at the box office, Its first 100 crore share movie for Mahesh babu and it collected 3.5 million at USA box office becoming 4th highest all time grosser after Rangasthalam. 

Credits

Banner: Swapna Cinema 

Cast: Keerthy Suresh, Dulquer Salmaan, Samantha Akkineni, Vijay Devarakonda, Rajendra Prasad, Tanikella Bharani, Malavika Nair, Shalini Pandey, Tulasi, Divya Vani, Naga Chaitanya, Mohan Babu, Prakash Raj

Music: Mickey J Meyer

Cinematographer: Dani Sanchez-Lopez

Lyrics: Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry & Ramajogayya Sastry

Costume Design: Gaurang Shah and Archana Rao 

Dialogues: Sai Madhav Burra

Production Design: Shivam Rao

Art Director: Avinash Kolla 

Editor: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao

Written & Direction: Nag Ashwin

Producers: C Ashwini Dutt, Swapna Dutt, Priyanka Dutt

Release Date: May 9th, 2018 



Writing/Direction:

Obviously this is the biopic of the greatest Indian actress of all time and Nag Ashwin chooses a back and forth screenplay meaning it runs on two parallels: the past and the present. 



Generally with these types of movies, they tend to test your patience and confuse you but here its brilliantly done and so seamless. 



You can look at this movie in so many different ways but much like the story I’ll talk about it in two ways: a biopic and its actually a mass movie at the same time. 



So usually in films biopics are whitewashed which means you purposefully dont know the flaws or bas things about someone to glorify them. 



That’s where mahanati gets things right in that it elevates Savitri garu but also shows her flaws as a person which led to her downfall. 



Why I see it as a movie mass is because it has everything you’d expect from a mass commercial film and also because mahanati has the rare distinction of appealing to literally everybody. 



It is about the period that made Telugu cinema famous so literally from old people to young people even those who dont know Savitri, they will enjoy the movie. Naresh gives that elevation in the movie about it:   



It has amazing music, it has comedy, it has romance, it has the best drama, it has emotion and most of all it has highs, not one but so many goosebumps moments and elevations. Movie has so many elevations I lost count but here they are: 




Intro scene itself crowd comes and they ask who is this Mahanati and the scene comes 
Naresh speaking about Savitiri 
Savitri intro on sets of KV Reddy film 
What KV Reddy says to her after that 
NTR introduction, Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao ee peru guthu pettukovali 
Savtiri being praised for her performance in Tamil film leading into Sada Nannu song and whole Sada Nannu song 
Their marriage scene temple in temple due to the Veena in BGM and dialogues: jeevitham lo natinchachu gaani, jeevithani natinchalemu 
Misamma scene all time classic movie 
Entire Mooga Manasulu song 
Chakrapani comes and says: neeku cinemalu asavarasam vunappudu cinemalu nee avasaram teeruchindi gaa, ippudu cinema ki nuvvu avasarama, Rama Rao Krishnudu, Nageswara Rao Abhimanyudu, cinema peru MAyabazar the greatest telugu movie ever made, unlimited goosebumps 
Entire MAhanati song: old man giving namaskaram, SVR saying today is scene with Savitri give me the scene paper, and Chakrapani saying everybody waits for NTR, ANR, and Sibaji Ganesan dates but all of these guys wait for Savtiri’s dates 
Sivaji Ganesan always likes Savitri but he gets jealous of her success and then starts drinking to get out of the sadness. Then he tells her to do the same so she does. 
Movie premiere she comes home and then in rain says im now Savitri Ganesan 
Fire scene and entire Chivareki Migiledi scene 
Climax scene and last shot. End credits. 



I usually dont cry in movies. But the last 30 minutes made me cry and climax scene and credits made me cry a lot. It’s so sad knowing that the greatest actress who ever lived is not with us anymore. 



Direction by Nag Ashwin is perfect. This movie is a masterclass in storytelling and it a classic. From writing, direction, and all technicalities, it is flawless. These are the types of movie they should

Credits

Banner: Sri Sai Deva Productions

Cast: Venkatesh, Kalyani, Arti Agarwal, Tanikella Bharani, Chandra Mohan, Surya, Vizag Prasad, Ahuti Prasad, Delhi Rajeswari, Akash, Sunil, VVS Laxman (special appearance)

Dialogues: Chintapally Ramana

Music: SA Raj Kumar

Songs: Veturi, Sirivennela, Kulasekhar & Chandrabose

Art: Raju

Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh

Co-director: Uma Maheswara Rao

Producer: NV Prasad & Sanam Naga Ashok Kumar

Story - Screenplay - Direction: Vikraman

Release date: 11 July 2003

Interesting Facts:

Film is was simultaneous shot in Tamil as Priyamana Thozhi with madhavan, Jyotika and Sridevi. It was average in Tamil but super hit In Telugu. 

Audio was released on June 14th 2003 in Ramanaidu Studious and it was the first Vasantham is also the first Indian film to be shot in Greece (Ninnu Choodaku song was filming in Mykonos) 

Additional songs shot in Switzerland and then Ammo Ammayena song was filmed at the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, Rajasthan

It released alongside Simhadri and ran better than Simhadri in some areas. 

Overall it was a super hit at the box office. 

Writing/Direction:

Based on friendship but unlike Nuvve Kavali which had great entertainment, pacing, and emotions, Vasantham has none of these. Its straight up boring. 

Julie and Ashok have been childhood friends ok, and he respects her religion and everything but like nothing worked for me on the rewatch. It aged terribly. 

Also his family doesnt like him because he’s trying to be a cricketer and he comes home late at night etc. But this aspect isn’t even explored well either. Its so over the top and almost serial like. They’re annoyed he comes home but how does it affect their family it’s never shown. I always come back to the movie but a guy who drinks and wastes time with his friends is much better explored in AMAV. 

Movie is full of illogical and cringeworthy scenes 


Chandramohan comes back home and starts laughing. And he dies while laughing. Its so suddenly and out of context. When she dies, I should feel emotion but I didnt feel shit 
Venkatesh is jobless or whatever hes trying for cricket team, they find match for him for thammudu. There are 3 brothers. They go to the pellichoppulu and say please serve the coffee for Pelli koduku and she serves his brother. He feels avamanam. 
When taking a photo, he sees a girl on video and falls in love with her. Finds same girl on train and when she goes to bathroom he puts a cassette in her bag. She comes back home and listens to it and falls for him. 
He finally goes to Pellichoopulu and then hears the girls voice and he starts singing, girl recognizes him and they hug and cut panna Ammo Ammayena song 
They get married much to the irritation of her sister and they come to a wedding and while theyre eating, she insults them. Eating also insults? What the f**k is wrong with you? So illogical and cinrgwrorthy. Such athi 
He comes back home to treat his friends and you’d think its funny but its so cringeworthy and not funny at all 
Ahuthi Prasad gives him a bribe and idk where such people exist much like Nuvvu nenu movie and Venkatesh agrees and then starts ill treating Julie in the name of promise. So artificial as he feels bad every time 
Climax is peaks of illogical stuff. Venky and Aarti get ready to leave but they have enough time to stay in the station and watch the press conference on some tv in the station. Julie and Michael have enough time to come to station and she sings Gaali chirugaali and he hears her from being so far away and they hug and go away 

Sunil and Dhamarvarupu entire comedy track actually every comedy scene is cringe max. Its not funny at all. That too Sunil tries to do his best but the comedy didnt work at all. 



Direction by Vikraman is terrible. No emotion, no entertainment, and nothing. It’s flat out boring and just unintentionally funny. Movie was aged terribly and is a rod in present day. Venky has m

Credits 

Banner: Ushakiron Movies 

Cast: Tarun, Richa Sharma, Sai Kiran & Varsha

Music: Koti

Camera: Hari Anumolu

Art Direction: Ranga Peketi 

Editing: A. Sreekar Prasad 

Dialogues : Trivikram

Story: Iqbal Kuttippuram (Niram)

Story, Screenplay & Direction: Vijaya Bhaskar

Executive Producer: Sravanti Ravi Kishore

Producer: Ramoji Rao

Theatrical Release Date: 13th October 2000

Interesting Facts: 


Initial choice was Mahesh babu and they sent the CD of Niram to him but no response from mahesh after a month, then they tried for Sumanth and he wanted to do it but he had already accepted two big movies at that point. They thought instead of casting big heroes, let’s try to for new faces. 
75 lakhs budget was finalized for the movie but Ravi Kishore didnt have the funds for it so he approached Ramoji Rao who agreed to co produce the movie and made him an executive producer on the movie with 10 lakhs base salary and 20% of the profits in final collections go ahead. The movie was green lit. 


Finally filming started and 90% of the movie was done in Ramoji Film City. First they thought 75 lakhs budget but additional 40 was needed and final budget was 1.15 crores. 


Finally October 13th, 2000 released in 36 centers. Bagundi ani talk bheembatsamaina range ki vellindi. 
Yevanam lo vunde sneham and prema, 0 vulgarity and anni varghalu prekshalu ki nachale cheisndi movie. Kotu musić specifilay Anaganaga Aaakasam and Kallaloki Kallu Petti were heard everywhere. 
Dialogues became very famous such as paalu ante allergy, kana pale energy, manta doomramga vunte vidi telidu manishi deggaraga vunte prema telidu, ishta padithe bayapadaku, bayapadithe ishta padaku, isthapadi bayapedithe badhapadaku 


Tarun became a overnight star, Richa got a break, Trivkram and Vijay Bhaskar became star writer and star director and it helped so many careers. 
Started with limited released and increased to 200 theaters there after, it completed 100 days in 30 centers, 200 days in 21 centers,225 days in 17 centers, 250 days in 15 centers, 365 days in 6 centers. It is the only telugu movie to run in this many centers for this many days continuously.  
Without any drop it was the last movie ti run for than year and industry talk is it had the highest footfalls of any telugu movie ever during its run. 
Collected 1 crores in Hyderabad Odeon Deluxe theater itself and in Nizam it collected 8 crores share double what Kailsundam Raa made back in January. Except Ceeded it set all time record in every area and became biggest industry hit of Telugu cinema until Narasimha Naidu. 
Officially the movie collected 18 crores share.
It remains the ONLY telugu movie to be an industry hit that features newcomers. 

To give insight into the run it just ran and ran and ran 

1. Srikakulam - Keerthika - 252 days

2. Vizianagaram - Sivaranjani - 273 days

3. Vizag - Leelamahal - 266 days

4. Rajamundry - Urvasi - 252 days

5. Kakinada - Sridevi - 266 days

6. Eluru - Kalpana - 266 days

7. Bhimavaram - Mini Mahalaxmi - 266 days

8. Vijayawada - Shanti - 295 days

9. Machilipatnam - Mini Revathi - 266 days

10. Gunadala - Vinayak - 203 days (Late release) 

11. Guntur - Pallavi deluxe - 252 days

12. Tenali - Mini Sangameswara - 266 days

13. Ongole - Tulasiram - 219 days

14. Nellore - Leela mahal - 242 days

15. Anantapur - Gowthami - 277 days

16. Kadapa - Sudha - 247 days

17. Kurnool - Apsara - 259 days

18. Madanapalli - Mini Siddartha - 210 days (Late release) 

19. Nandyala - Mini Venkateswara - 201 days (Late release) 

20. Hyderabad - Odeon 70mm - 266 days

21. Warangal - Kakatiya - 252 days



200 days run with shifts : 2 centers

1. Tirupati - Srinivasa 94 days + Mini Pratap 164 days - 258 days run

2. Chittoor - Raghava  195 days + shift - 200+ days



Remaining 175 days centers : 4

1. Ballery - Sri Rajeshwari - 175 days

2. Nizamabad - Devi 70mm - 175 days

3. Bansuwada - Ramakrishna - 175 days

4. Hindupur

Credits

Banner: Usha Kiron Movies

Cast: Uday Kiran, Reema Sen, Tankiella Bharani, Banerjee, Chitram Seenu, Rallapalli, Gundu Sudarshanam

Cinematography: Rasool Ellore

Choreography: Shankar

Art Director: Narayana Reddy 

Editor: Shankar

Music: RK Patnaik

Dialogues, Story, Screenplay and Direction: Teja

Producer: Ramoji Rao

Release Date: June 16ht, 2000

Context: Don’t even remember the movie just know that is Uday Kiran, Reema Sen, and Teja first movie. Rewatched it and it was ROD RAA BABU. Unbearable cringe just so slow and so boring and gave headache. It the worst movie we have rewatched since starting this podcast. I hated it that much.



Acting: 

Uday Kiran is decent. Looks the part thats about it. Looked very rough but obviuiosy improved. 

Reema Sen is obviously vert attractive and has great screen presence and suited the character perfectly, Acting wise she did ok as they’re both new actors. 

Tanikella Bharati is the hug light as typical middle class father who is always yelling at his sons. 

Banerjee is decent. 

Entire friend gang gives irritation and they were terrible. Rallpallai garu was ok. 

Gundu Sudharshanam has a cameo as auto driver. 

Not much to talk about acting overall. 

Writing/Direction: 

This is a perfect example of a movie that has aged so terribly its not even funny. The core concept of teenage pregnancy is good but the execution is so bad. 

First of all the whole movie gives irritation with its taking. And because by that point I was already so frustrated with the movie, whatever conflict they faced after having the baby I didn't care at all. 


Heroine is a American born person yet she has no American accent and she’s 17. What fucking college allows people to join at 17. Typically it happens at 18 so idk but it was illogical 
She meets hero by following the green line to the music hall or whatever it is. You could go normal instead she does athi and goes there dancing in classrooms and etc. And she just stares at the hero
Tanikella Bharani and wife cheera track is the dumbest fucking thing I’ve seen in a long time. It was cringe max. Idhi comedy ah? 
Friends gang was so irritating and so f*****g annoying. Especially that guy with the mop hair. What idiot plays drums in the class and then every tome hero and heroine talk to each other, he plays drums and camera switches to either of them. Those f*****g drum sticks brought so much irritation
I dont’t understand why you’d get married at 17 years old. So illogical. You can be together and have the baby but why get married. She basically drops out of school and doesnt finish her degree. 
Their love track wasnt convincing at all and frankly it was quite uncomfortable to watch. He’s always trying touching her bondalu and clearly she’s uncomfortable but he keeps doing it. And then eventually they do it and idk if its a family movie or whatever but it was uncomfortable to watch for sure. 

Movie was so slow and boring, No entertainment, just straight up boredom and irritation more than anything, There’s literally nothing to praise in the movie. It was pukka rod. 

Direction by Teja is terrible. Movie has aged so badly and its so slow and boring in present day with no entertainment and illogical writing. 

Technicalities: 

Songs and BGM by RP Patnaik are pacha lite. I didnt like a single song. 

Cinematography is decent and so is Art Direction for the music portion. 

Editing is awful. Theres no pacing or flow to the movie whatsoever 

Production Values by ramoji rao are decent. Its a low budget movie and clearly looks like one. 

Overall: Chitram is unreadable rod in present day. With no entertainment, cringe pro max, and such a slow and boring movie. Dont even bother trying to watch it again, That is all. Thank you. 

Credits 

Banner: Anandi Arts Creations 

Cast: Uday Kiran, Anita, Tanikella Bharani, Sunil, MS Narayana, Dharmavarapu, Shakuntala, Rallapalli 

Music: RP Patnaik

Lyrics: Kula Sekhar

Cinematography: Rasool Ellore 

Art: Narayana Reddy 

Editing: Shankar 

Story, Dialogues, Screenplay & Direction: Teja

Producer: P Kiran 

Theatrical Release Date: 10th August 2001

Context: Watched it when I was young and the only reason I remember the movie is Gajuvaka Pilla, even today that’s the only song I liked and remember and of course one of Uday Kiran’s biggest hits, 2nd of the 3. Decided to rewatch it as we are doing all youthful love stories during that time, and it was ROD RA BABU. ROD RAMBOLA.

Interesting Facts:


After Chitram, director Teja had some many offers, and he got an offer from Venkatesh. He readied the story, artists, tehnciaisna but at that tome Vneky was already committed to Nuvvu Naaku Nachav. Teja felt really bad and since they already had everything set under same production house and everything was ready, one day he was seriously driving the car and road addamga gorrelu tholuthu oka andamaina girl 
Looking at her chiraakly, a man in a Benz car. Seeing this suddenly teja got an idea, he went back and told the producer who was supposed to make the movie with Venkatesh, thats cancelled and instead listen to this story, hero is a millionaire and girl is a gorrelu owning guys daughter and told some scenes. The producer liked it and they put murtham the very next day and started the next day. Dasaradh and Trivikram Srinivas saharakam. 
Besides hero and heroine, entire cast and crew was finalized. First they asked Sumanth, he said no and Madhavan rejected it. Teja was in a dilemma, then Uday Kiran came to mind/ Uday Kiran considers Teja as his godfather, and he came to him asking for next movie advice. Teja was just observing him and Uday Kiran thought hes in some thought and as he got up to leave, Teja told him go to the gym and build a nice body youre the lead of my next movie. Uday Kiran was very excited 
For heroine, they auditioned 100 people. One girl was finalized but he started asking for palana hotel, palana car, and started to do buildup so then Teja looked all the other girls left and asked who’s the cheapest girl here, the girl showed Anita’s photo and Teja said this girl is my heroine you can now leave and told this to that girls face and she got shocked. 
Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Vikarabad entire shoot for completed very quickly. 
Movie had 11 songs and producer asked to remove 3 of them but Teja didnt agree to it. For the movie they wanted to do with Venaktesh, Gajuvaka Pilla had already been composed and they used it for Nuvvu Nenu instead 
The scene where hero’s father wants to get his son married to his lovers daughter was objected by Dasaradh but Teja said high range people are like this only. 
Shooting was completed and 1 crore 60 lakhs budget August 10th release and movie got blockbuster talk from morning shows. Though we have seen such love stories, screenplay really hooked audience in and then songs, emotions everything aakatu kunnayi. 
Mee Pedollu vunnare dialogue became iconic and wherever you went you heard Gajuvaka Pilla 
Movie made Uday Kiran a star hero and fans clubs started around Andhra, Teja became a star director. RP Patnaik became a star music director, Dharmarupu, Vizag Prasad and Telangana SHankuntala all got. Huge break with this film 
Coming to box office details and run, it collected 15 crores share and more than 20 crores gross and caused a sensation. It collected 1 crore gross in a single theater in Hyderabad 
After Narasimha Naidu, Kushi, and Nuvve Kavali, it was 4th highest grossing movie ever after final run ended and Uday Kiran got the record which no star hero had at the time having a top movie in all time highest grossers currently. Late release added it completed 100 days in 70 centers. 
It gave all distributors 10x