Okkadu


Okkadu is a 2003 Indian Telugu-language action film written and directed by Gunasekhar starring Mahesh Babu, Bhoomika Chawla and Prakash Raj. The film was produced by M.S. Raju while music was composed by Mani Sharma and editing was by A. Sreekar Prasad. The film has garnered eight Nandi Awards and four Filmfare Awards South, including Best Film – Telugu, and led Mahesh Babu to instant stardom. The film was later remade into Tamil as Ghilli which became a blockbuster. The film was also remade in Bengali titled Jor, and in Hindi as Tevar starring Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha, Kannada as Ajay and in Odia as Mate Aanidela Lakhe Phaguna.

Plot

Ajay Varma is a Hyderabad-based Kabbadi player who visits Kurnool to take part in a state-level tournament. There, he 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 to the United States for pursuing higher education after Obul killed her brothers. When Ajay saves Swapna, he humiliates Obul by pushing him into a mudpond. Obul refuses to cleanse the mud until Swapna is found and brought back. Ajay helps Swapna escape and takes her to his house in an old city, hiding her in his room with the help of his sister, Asha.
Soon, his parents find out she is hiding in their house. Swapna and Ajay run away again and she falls in love with him. The next day, the police, led by Ajay's father Vijay, surround the Charminar where Swapna is hidden by Ajay. The duo, along with Ajay's friends, reach the airport to go to the United States. They bring her parents to see her one last time before she leaves. After Swapna is past airport security, Ajay realises he loves Swapna. She shows up and hugs him while proposing him.
At the airport, Vijay arrests Ajay while Obul's men take Swapna away. After Swapna taunts him by saying that Ajay will definitely come for her, Obul goes to the jail and asks Ajay to come with him. Here, Vijay expresses that he's not worried about Ajay; rather, he's worried for Obul. Obul and his henchmen are kidnapped by Ajay, who, along with his friends, attend the finals of national level tournament.
Meanwhile, Obul's brother Siva Reddy, who happens to be the home minister of the state, is waiting at the venue of Obul's marriage with Swapna. After coming to know about his whereabouts, Siva reaches the stadium along with Swapna and his mother where Ajay and Obul are fighting with each other. Swapna's father stabs Obul, whereas his mother dies in a bomb blast. Siva decides not to react as it would harm his position as a minister and Ajay, whose team won the match, celebrates the victory with Swapna and his family.

Cast

Development

During his days as an assistant director in Madras, Gunasekhar dreamed to direct a film with the backdrop of Charminar, a monument and mosque located in Hyderabad. After watching West Side Story, he took inspiration from the war between two gangs and wrote a script choosing Charminar and Old city area of Hyderabad as the film's backdrop. Years later, Ashwini Dutt met Gunasekhar during the re-recording sessions of Choodalani Vundi where the latter saw the portfolio images of Mahesh Babu whose debut film Rajakumarudu was officially launched that day. Finding Mahesh apt for the protagonist he envisioned, Gunasekhar narrated the script to him and gained his consent.
After the release of Mrugaraju, Gunasekhar resumed work on the film's script. After reading an interview of Pullela Gopichand who pursued a career in badminton against his father's wishes and faced many hardships, Gunasekhar made the protagonist a person who aspires to be a kabaddi player against his father's wishes. He met Ramoji Rao who expressed his wish to produce the film and permitted Gunasekhar to erect a Charminar set at Ramoji Film City.
Rao walked out due to unknown reasons and Mahesh, along with Gunasekhar, met M. S. Raju at Padmalaya Studios office. Mahesh 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.
Gunasekhar wanted to name the film as Athade Ame Sainyam, but the title was already registered for another film which made Gunasekhar name the film as Okkadu after considering Kabaddi. The film was produced under the banner Sumanth Art Productions with a budget of 130140 million.

Cast and crew

Impressed with her screen presence in Yuvakudu, Gunasekhar chose Bhumika Chawla as the film's female lead to be paired with Mahesh. Mukesh Rishi and Geetha were signed to play Mahesh'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". Prakash Raj was signed as the antagonist and was seen as a politician who falls for Bhumika's character in the film. Telangana Shakuntala played the role of Prakash Raj's mother in the film for which she had to smoke cigar. Chandra Mohan and Niharika were seen in supporting roles as Bhumika's father and Mahesh's sister respectively.
Paruchuri Brothers were signed to write the film's dialogues. Mani Sharma composed the score and Sekhar V. Joseph was its cinematographer. A. Sreekar Prasad edited the film, and Ashok Kumar was its art director. 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. After the first copy was ready, Paruchuri Brothers suggested Gunasekhar to prefer a linear narrative to the non linear narrative being used. The latter, along with Prasad, changed the narration to linear within ten minutes.

Filming

The film's unit erected the Charminar set in a ten acres of land owned by D. Ramanaidu at Gopannapalle near Hyderabad. The original height of Charminar is and the height of each minaret is feet. The film's unit decided to construct the set with a length of 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 17.5 million.
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. 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 was injured several times during the film's shoot.

Music

The music for the film was composed by Mani Sharma. The lyrics were written by Sirivennela Sitaramasastri.
The film was released on 15 January 2003 in 165 screens. The audio was released on 19 December 2002.

Remakes

Okkadu was remade in Tamil as Ghilli, in Kannada as Ajay, in Bengali as Jor and in Hindi as Tevar and in Odia as ''Mote Anidela Lakhe Phaguna.

Awards