Rangaiah is a millionaire, whose loyal and trusted manager is Seethaiah. Seethaiah's wife Lakshmi takes care of Rangaiah's motherless son. Rangaiah's brother-in-law, the greedy Sivam, frames Rangaiah for murder, has him sent to prison for 20 years, and kidnaps his son. But the boy is saved by a childless couple Pichaiah and Achamma, who found him unconscious on the river bed and raise him as Prasad. Later, Achamma gives birth to a daughter, Leela. Seethaiah's daughter Padma falls in love with Prasad. Seethaiah offers Prasad a high-ranking position in his pharmaceutical company. Rangaiah is released upon completing his prison term. Prasad learns the truth about his parentage. Strange things happen, which Prasad suspects are centered around Seethaiah's house. With help from Padma and S. S. Rao, he solves the mystery and exposes Seethaiah as the real culprit for the wrong deeds.
After working as a production controller at Saradhi Studios for years, Thammareddy Krishnamurthy established his own production company Ravindra Art Pictures with his friend D. Venkatapathi Reddy as partner. For the company's debut production, which would eventually become Lakshadhikari, Krishnamurthy signed V. Madhusudhan Rao to direct and Narla Chiranjeevi as writer. The original story was simply a "family drama", which did not fully satisfy Krishnamurthy. When Krishnamurthy met producer Parvathaneni Gangadhara Rao, the latter advised him to include an element of suspense in the story, and Krishnamurthy liked the idea. Heeding to Krishnamurthy's wishes, Narla Chiranjeevi rewrote the story to make it look more like a thriller. Cinematography was handled by C. Nageswara Rao, and the editing by Akkineni Sanjeeva Rao.
Casting
was cast as the male lead Prasad; the fact that he and Krishnamurthy bonded during the making of Palletooru, which was Krishnamurthy's cinematic debut as production manager, helped him get Rama Rao's dates for Lakshadhikari. Krishna Kumari was cast as Prasad's lover Padma, V. Nagaiah as his father Rangaiah, Gummadi Venkateswara Rao as Rangaiah's manager Seethaiah, Relangi as S. S. Rao, Ramana Reddy as Prasad's foster father Pichaiah, Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy as S. S. Rao's father Panakalu, K. V. S. Sarma as Rangaiah's brother-in-law Sivam, Suryakantham as Pichaiah's wife Achamma, Girija as their daughter Leela, and Rushyendramani as Seethaiah's wife Lakshmi. Krishnamurthy initially signed Nagabhushanam to play Seethaiah, but replaced him with Gummadi, who he felt could "conceal villainy behind his soft demeanour and mislead the audience."
Filming
One scene filmed at the swimming pool of the College of Engineering, Guindy had Leela wearing a swimsuit, but it was edited out by the Censor Board who declared that "the heroine should not wear a ". The exterior portions of Chandamama Buildings in Vadapalani stood in for the college where Padma and Leela study. The end of the song "Mabbulo Yemundi" required that the lead pair walk holding each other's hands on the sea shore. As they were walking, a giant wave swept them away. Krishna Kumari did not know swimming and thought she was drowning, but Rama Rao held her hand tightly and saved her. Peketi Sivaram created the film's revolver sound effects.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by T. Chalapathi Rao.
Release and reception
Lakshadhikari was released on 27 September 1963. The film performed well at the box office, and became a trendsetter for more suspense-filled films in Telugu.
