| Okkadu | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Gunasekhar |
| Written by | Story &Screenplay: Gunasekhar Dialogues: Paruchuri Brothers |
| Produced by | M. S. Raju |
| Starring | Mahesh Babu Bhumika Chawla Prakash Raj |
| Cinematography | Sekhar V. Joseph |
| Edited by | A. Sreekar Prasad |
| Music by | Mani Sharma |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 171 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Telugu |
Okkadu (transl. one person) is a 2003 IndianTelugu-languageromanticsportsaction drama film co-written and directed byGunasekhar and produced byM. S. Raju. The film starsMahesh Babu,Bhumika Chawla andPrakash Raj.The music was composed byMani Sharma, while the cinematography and editing were handled bySekhar V. Joseph andA. Sreekar Prasad.
In the film, Ajay, a fieryKabaddi player fromHyderabad, visitsKurnool for a tournament and rescues Swapna from a faction leader, Obul Reddy, who wants to marry her by force. As Ajay hides her and helps plan her escape abroad, a violent feud erupts, leading to love, loss, and a final showdown.
Okkadu was released on 15 January 2003 to critical acclaim. The film received praise for its acting, action sequences, and direction and went on to become a major commercial success grossing over ₹50 crore at the box office with adistributors' share of ₹25-30 crore.[1] It became Mahesh Babu's first big blockbuster in his career after the successes ofRajakumarudu andMurari and led him to achieve stardom.[2][1] It has garnered eightNandi Awards and fourFilmfare Awards South, includingBest Film– Telugu.
Over the years, the film was remade in eight other languages: asGhilli (2004) inTamil, asAjay (2006) inKannada, twice inBangladesh asDapot (2006) andBolona Kobul (2009), asMate Aanidela Lakhe Phaguna (2008) inOdia, asJor (2008) in Bengali, asTevar (2015) inHindi, and asKabaddi (2021) inSinhala.
Ajay Varma, a hot headedHyderabad-basedKabbadi player, aUPSC aspirant and the son ofDCP Vijay Varma, visitsKurnool to take part in a state-level tournament. In Kurnool, Ajay saves Swapna Reddy from Obul Reddy, a dangerous faction leader who is in love with Swapna and wants to marry her against her wishes. Ajay learns that Swapna is trying to leave for theUS to live with her uncle and pursue her studies after Obul killed her two elder brothers over their disapproval of a marriage alliance on account of the age gap.
In the process of saving Swapna, Ajay humiliates Obul by pushing him into a mud pond. Obul refuses to cleanse the mud until Swapna is found and brought back. Ajay takes Swapna to his house in theOld City and hides her in his room with the help of his sister, Asha, while he and his friends work to get her a Visa and passport. However, Ajay's parents learn about Swapna hiding in their house. Swapna escapes with Ajay and eventually falls in love with him. The next day, Vijay and his gang of friends surround theCharminar, where Swapna is hidden. Swapna, Ajay, and his friends reachBegumpet Airport. They also brought Swapna's parents to see her one last time. Meanwhile, all facts were known to Obul Reddy through Ajay's Kabbadi rivals, the "Soda gang," then Obul Reddy warns Vijay at his home for not finding his son and Swapna.
However, with hard struggle, Ajay successfully makes Swapna pass airport security, and then Ajay realizes that he loves Swapna, who later shows up and hugs him while proposing to him. But then, Vijay arrests Ajay, while Obul's men take Swapna away.
Later, Swapna taunts Obul, who tries to molest her, but she defends herself by telling that Ajay will definitely come for her and challenges him to defeat Ajay to get her. Obul goes to the prison and asks Ajay to come with him by Vijay's approval as a result of withdrawing his case. Vijay expresses that he is not worried about Ajay but is worried about Obul. The Obul attempts to kill Ajay again but realizes that it is a trap set by Ajay and his gang, and later, Obul and his henchmen are abducted by Ajay. Later, Ajay and his friends attend the finals of the national-level Kabaddi tournament and win the tournament. Meanwhile, Obul has escaped through Soda gang and called forces to kill Ajay.
Obul's elder brotherHome Minister Siva Reddy is waiting at the venue of Obul's marriage with Swapna. After learning about his whereabouts, Siva reaches the stadium, along with Swapna and his mother. Ajay and Obul are fighting with each other, while Obul's mother gets killed in a bomb blast by her dog (after attempting to kill Ajay at the stadium). Finally, Ajay defeats Obul. Later, Obul regains his consciousness to kill Ajay, but Swapna's father, Dhasaratharami Reddy, later stabs him to death. Siva Reddy decides not to react as it would harm his position. Ajay and his friends celebrate their victory with Swapna and her family. Later, both Ajay and Swapna get married.
During his days as an assistant director in Madras (nowChennai),Gunasekhar dreamt of directing a film with the backdrop ofCharminar, a monument and mosque located inHyderabad. After watchingWest Side Story (1961), he took inspiration from the war between two gangs and wrote a script choosing Charminar andOld city area of Hyderabad as the film's backdrop.[3] Years later,Aswini Dutt met Gunasekhar during the re-recording sessions ofChoodalani Vundi (1998) where the latter saw the portfolio images ofMahesh Babu whose debut filmRajakumarudu (1999) was officially launched that day. Finding Mahesh Babu apt for the protagonist he envisioned, Gunasekhar narrated the script to him and gained his consent.[3]
After the release ofMrugaraju (2001), Gunasekhar resumed work on the film's script. After reading an interview ofPullela Gopichand who pursued a career inbadminton against his father's wishes and faced many hardships, Gunasekhar made the protagonist a person who aspires to be akabaddi player against his father's wishes.[3] He metRamoji Rao who expressed his wish to produce the film and permitted Gunasekhar to erect a Charminar set atRamoji Film City.[3]
Ramoji Rao walked out for unknown reasons and Mahesh Babu, along with Gunasekhar, metM. S. Raju atPadmalaya Studios office. Mahesh Babu asked Raju to permit them to erect a Charminar set as they cannot avail police permission to shoot at the original after a person committed suicide by jumping from the top. Raju agreed to do so after listening to the script narration and the project was subsequently announced.[4]
Gunasekhar wanted to name the film asAthade Ame Sainyam (transl. He is her army), but the title was already registered for another film which made Gunasekhar name the film asOkkadu after consideringKabaddi.[4] The film was produced under the bannerSumanth Art Productions with a budget of₹8–9 crore.[4]
Impressed with her screen presence inYuvakudu (2000), Gunasekhar choseBhumika Chawla as the film's female lead to be paired with Mahesh Babu.[4]Mukesh Rishi andGeetha were signed to play Mahesh Babu's parents in the film. The former called it a character close to his heart, calling it is a "soft role after a string of ferocious roles that I have played".[5]Prakash Raj was signed as the antagonist and was seen as a factionist who falls for Bhumika's character in the film.[6]Telangana Shakuntala played the role of Prakash Raj's mother in the film for which she had to smoke a cigar.Chandra Mohan and Niharika were seen in supporting roles as Bhumika's father and Mahesh Babu's sister respectively.[7]
Paruchuri Brothers were signed to write the film's dialogues.Mani Sharma composed the score andSekhar V. Joseph was its cinematographer.[4]A. Sreekar Prasad edited the film,[8] and Ashok Kumar was its art director.[9] Sreekar Prasad called it a difficult film as it went through many forms of narration and he found it challenging to keep the pace very fast to make it slick and engaging.[8] After the first copy was ready, Paruchuri Brothers suggested to Gunasekhar that alinear narrative be opted for over thenon linear narrative. The latter, along with Sreekar Prasad, changed the non-linear narration to linear, within ten minutes.[4]
The film's unit erected the Charminar set in the ten acres of land owned byD. Ramanaidu at Gopannapalle near Hyderabad. The original height of Charminar is 176 feet (54 m) and the height of each minaret is 78 feet (24 m) feet. The film's unit decided to construct the set with a length of 120 feet (37 m) feet by not altering the minarets and instead reduce the total length of the remaining part. The surroundings of Charminar were recreated in five acres around the set. 300 workers were employed in the construction of the set which lasted for three months and costed₹1.75 crore.[4]
The makers decided to create the roads near the set using computer graphics in order to reduce the budget.Principal photography began in the same set and fifteen generators were used for illuminating the area. Strada Cranes were used for filming key scenes after ordinary cranes proved to be futile.[4] The film's climax was shot in December 2002 for 11 days and 1000 junior artistes participated in the film's shoot amid extreme climatic conditions. Despite receiving training in kabaddi, Mahesh Babu was injured several times during the film's shoot.[4]
| Okkadu | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album to Okkadu by | |
| Released | 19 Dec 2002 |
| Recorded | 2002 |
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack |
| Language | Telugu |
| Label | Aditya Music |
| Producer | Mani Sharma |
The music for the film was composed byMani Sharma and the lyrics were written bySirivennela Seetharama Sastry.[10]
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Hare Rama" | Shankar Mahadevan | 5:57 |
| 2. | "Nuvvem Maya" | Shreya Ghoshal | 4:02 |
| 3. | "Cheppave Chirugali" | Udit Narayan,Sujatha | 5:30 |
| 4. | "Hay Rey Hai" | Karthik,K. S. Chithra | 5:05 |
| 5. | "Attarintiki" | Hariharan, Shreya Ghoshal,Priya Sisters | 5:57 |
| 6. | "Sahasam" | Mallikharjun | 5:03 |
| Total length: | 31:38 | ||
The film was released on 15 January 2003 in 165 screens. The audio was released on 19 December 2002. The film earned a distributor's share of₹25−30 crore.[1]
Home media
Okkadu was available to stream onSUN Nxt.[11]
Sify wrote, "Finally Mahesh Babu has managed to get the right mix and makeOkkadu, a live-wire action thriller. Paruchuri brothers and director Guna Sekhar have made it racy and Mani Sharma has dished out some memorable tunes".[12]Idlebrain wrote, "First half of the film is very good. Second half is good. The narration has become slow in the second half. But keeping in mind that there is only one thread (Mahesh sending Bhumika to USA) to be narrated, we can't expect a better second half. All the scenes that happen in Mahesh Babu's house provide lot of entertainment with subtle comedy. Mahesh Babu deserves an outstanding blockbuster andOkkadu has all the ingredients to become one".[13]
Okkadu was remade inTamil asGhilli (2004) and inKannada asAjay (2006), both featuringPrakash Raj reprising his role. The film was also remade in Bengali asJor (2008),Odia asMote Anidela Lakhe Phaguna (2008), inBangladeshBengali asBolona Kobul (2009), inHindi asTevar (2015) and inSinhala asKabaddi (2021).[14][15][16]
| Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nandi Awards | Best Feature Film (Silver) | M. S. Raju | Won | |
| Best Director | Gunasekhar | Won | ||
| Best Music Director | Mani Sharma | Won | ||
| Best Cinematographer | Sekhar V. Joseph | Won | ||
| Best Editor | A. Sreekar Prasad | Won | ||
| Best Art Director | Ashok Koralath | Won | ||
| Best Choreographer | Raju Sundaram | Won | ||
| Best Fight Master | FEFSI Vijayan | Won | ||
| 51st Filmfare Awards South | Best Film – Telugu | M. S. Raju | Won | |
| Best Director – Telugu | Gunasekhar | Won | ||
| Best Actor – Telugu | Mahesh Babu | Won | ||
| Best Music Director – Telugu | Mani Sharma | Won | ||
| Best Villain | Prakash Raj | Nominated | ||
| Santosham Film Awards | Best Film | M. S. Raju | Won | |
| Best Villain | Prakash Raj | Won | ||
| Best Art Direction | Ashok Kumar | Won | ||
| Best publicity designer | Ramesh Varma | Won | ||
| Best Supporting Actress | Telangana Shakuntala | Won | ||
| CineMAA Awards | Best Actor | Mahesh Babu | Won | |
| Best Director | Gunasekhar | Won | ||
| Best Music Director | Mani Sharma | Won | ||
| Best Cinematographer | Sekhar V. Joseph | Won | ||
| Best Art Director | Ashok Kumar | Won | ||
| Best Lyricist | Sirivennela Sitaramasastri | Won | ||
| Best Dialogue Writer | Paruchuri Brothers | Won | ||
| AP Cinegoers' Association 34th Annual Awards | Best Film | M. S. Raju | Won | |
| Best Actor | Mahesh Babu | Won | ||
| Best Director | Gunasekhar | Won | ||
| Best Villain | Prakash Raj | Won | ||
| Best Screenplay | Gunasekhar | Won | ||
| Best Fight Master | FEFSI Vijayan | Won |
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Filmfare Best Film Award 2003 | Succeeded by |