Businessman (film)
Businessman is a 2012 Indian Telugu-language action crime film directed and written by Puri Jagannadh and produced by R. R. Venkat under the banner R. R. Movie Makers. It is based from a concept by Ram Gopal Varma and stars an ensemble cast featuring Mahesh Babu, Kajal Aggarwal, Prakash Raj, Nassar, Sayaji Shinde, Raza Murad, Subbaraju and Brahmaji. In the film, Vijay Surya arrives at Mumbai with aspirations to rule the city due to his grudge against the corrupt system in the country, but begins to face violent challenges from the cops and his enemies.
S. Thaman composed the music, while Shyam K. Naidu and M. S. Rajashekhar Reddy handled the cinematography and editing. The film was made with a budget of 40 crore and was launched formally on 15 August 2011 in Hyderabad. Principal photography began on 2 September 2011 and was shot in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Goa. A few song sequences were shot in Bangkok. Filming ended on 10 December 2011 in 74 working days, making as one of the shortest periods in which a Telugu film has been shot.
Businessman was released during Sankranthi on 14 January 2012. The film grossed over 71 crore in its original release and collected a distributor share of 39 crore, becoming one of the highest-grossing Telugu films of 2012. The movie was remade in Bengali in 2013 as Boss: Born to Rule.
Plot
When Mumbai Police Commissioner Ajay Bhardwaj has declared the end of the mafia in the city, a brutal man named Vijay Surya arrives with the intention of conquering Mumbai. Staying at Dharavi with his friend, Surya recruits a group of gangsters and wins the support of a local politician named Laalu after getting a witness killed by his henchman Shakeel. Surya further helps the Dharavi locals clear their debts by making the henchmen rob the original copies of the loan documents kept at the local branch of Bank of Maharashtra and destroy the bank records. While the locals hail him as their savior, Surya becomes feared for extortion.In order to safeguard himself from Ajay, Surya traps his daughter Chitra Bhardwaj and pretends to fall for her. One day, Surya learns that Central Minister Jaidev Ghanapuleti, who aspires to be the next PM, has sent some assassins to kill him. Surya tricks the men into believing that he is a guide sent to help them where he plants bombs in their food that explodes, resulting in a shootout. While escaping, Surya sees Chitra, who has now learned of his true nature. When arrested, Surya accepts that he trapped her, but now he truly loves her. However, Ajay is forced to free Surya after his henchmen kidnap Chitra. Surya promises to give up crime in order to live with Chitra, but his proposal is turned down. So he decides to set up a business which cannot be touched by the police.
Surya starts a company named Surya Exports & Imports as a front for his vigilante acts. In order to set up branch offices all over the country, Surya recruits local gangsters for staff and begins to forcibly extract a 2% tax on every contract made in the respective areas. Eventually, Surya becomes a billionaire, and during the inauguration of his "Business Bank", reveals his thirst for power to Ajay, further citing the decline in crime rate after recruiting the gangsters, and expressing his desire to help the needy. Surya further helps Laalu become the Mayor of Bombay by defeating Arun Gokhle, endorsed and later killed by Jaidev after Arun reveals Jaidev's scams to Ajay.
Learning that Jaidev is planning to get both Chitra and Ajay killed, Surya rushes to their house but fails to save Ajay, who tells him to kill Jaidev in his final moments. Surya then reveals to Chitra that he was an American-born Indian whose philanthropist parents were cheated and killed by Jaidev. As a child, Surya tried to enlist the help of the police but found none, and he ended up stabbing and shooting Jaidev publicly. Surya meets Guru Govind Patel, the head of the opposition party through Laalu, and offers him 35,000 crore for election campaigning along with the promise to make him the next PM of India. Surya spends crores of rupees per constituency in the nation and also reveals Jaidev's illegal affairs, making him unable to contest in the elections.
Enraged, Jaidev kidnaps Chitra and Surya arrives to rescue her. Jaidev thrashes him and reveals that he gained public sympathy due to Surya's attack as a child and managed to become an MP. However, Surya gets into a fight with Jaidev's henchmen and leaves them all dead, except one who holds Chitra at knifepoint. Jaidev agrees to free Chitra if Surya dies. Surya shoots himself before shooting both Jaidev and the henchman to death. Chitra accepts her love for Surya, and Guru Govind Patel wins the elections. While recovering in the hospital, Surya delivers a message to the public.
Cast
Production
Development
signed Suriya for a multilingual action film titled The Businessman in May 2010, to be directed by Puri Jagannadh simultaneously in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi. The film's protagonist was supposed to be a South Indian coming to Mumbai and setting up a crime business using tact and intelligence to emerge as one of the biggest gangsters. The film's production was expected to begin in October 2010 once Suriya completed his part in 7 Aum Arivu and was scheduled for release in the summer of 2011. Jagannadh stated in an interview that principal photography would begin in September 2010. It was speculated that the film was to be based on the real-life story of a gangster who had moved from the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu to Mumbai in the late 1960s.The film was revived later by R. R. Venkat later in January 2011 with a tagline "Guns do not need agreements". He signed Mahesh Babu as the protagonist who worked with Jagannadh in the past for Pokiri. Venkat added that the film would be produced under the banner R. R. Movie Makers. Jagannadh completed the final draft of the film's script on 25 July 2011 during his stay at Bangkok, adding that he was inspired by Ram Gopal Varma. He stated that the pending pre-production work would begin in Hyderabad after a week. The film had its formal launch on 15 August 2011 with a small pooja ceremony conducted at Hyderabad. Shyam K. Naidu and S. Thaman were confirmed as the film's cinematographer and music director respectively.
Casting
Babu received the film's script while dubbing for Dookudu, but due to that commitment, it took 10 days to finish reading the script. He said in an interview that he could maintain the consistency in the character only because of the fewer working days. Jagannadh did not cast Brahmanandam and Ali because of Babu's specific characterisation; he added that Babu's voice had changed when compared to his performance in Pokiri. Babu also convinced Jagannadh to give up smoking, since he himself was trying to give up after being a chain smoker.Shruti Haasan was initially considered for the female lead role after her performance in her Telugu film debut, Anaganaga O Dheerudu. However, Kajal Aggarwal was signed as the female lead later in May 2011, marking her first collaboration with both Babu and Jagannadh respectively. She was paid 1 crore for this film. Jagannadh confirmed reports stating Babu and Aggarwal sharing a kiss in the film, adding that he retained them after Babu's wife Namrata Shirodkar approved it. It was reportedly the first onscreen kiss for Babu. Aggarwal explained that it was not supposed to be sensual, but was meant to portray the conflict between two characters, and added that it was shot "aesthetically" by Jagannadh.
Prakash Raj, Nassar, Sayaji Shinde, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, Brahmaji, and Bandla Ganesh among others were cast for key supporting roles. Hansika Motwani was rumoured to be a part of the film's cast in late August 2011 but not immediately confirmed. In mid October 2011, Hansika reportedly agreed to perform an item number in the film. She later dismissed those reports as baseless rumours, claiming that other acting assignments keep her away from accepting.
Actress Shweta Bhardwaj was therefore selected to perform the item number instead. She was friends with Jagannadh, and he approached her for this song during the film's shoot at Mumbai, saying that the song suited her and her personality as a dancer. She also tried to understand the meaning of the lyrics while dancing. Bhardwaj was afraid of dancing, suspecting a possible sprain, and found the costumes uneasy, but had to continue upon the choreographer's insistence. Canadian-born Indian actress Ayesha Shiva was signed to play Aggarwal's friend in the film.
Filming
The film was planned to be shot entirely in and around Mumbai and Jagannadh searched for distinct localities there which suit the script's backdrops. Jagannadh told Venkat that he needed 75 working days to complete the film's shoot. He planned to start with Babu in the first week of September 2011 and established this schedule before finishing in the first week of January 2012. Filming began on 2 September 2011 at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad.The second schedule began at Mumbai from 20 September 2011, and Babu confirmed in an interview that it would last until 5 December 2011. An action sequence choreographed by Vijayan was shot in mid October 2011, and it was announced that the film's climax would be shot in and around Goa from 27 October 2011. The song "We Want Bad Boys" was shot in late October 2011. At the same time, Jagannadh planned to shoot a couple of songs with Babu and Aggarwal in Spain during November 2011. The filming of the climax sequences featuring Babu, Prakash Raj, and others was finished by 2 November 2011.
After filming two songs in the districts of Krabi and Pattaya in Bangkok, the film's unit returned to Hyderabad on 2 December 2011 for completing patch work. The film's shooting was wrapped up on 10 December 2011 in 74 working days as expected. Jagannadh revealed in an interview that the film's length by the end of shoot was 84,000 feet as planned. He added that Babu and Aggarwal participated in the film's shoot for 65 and 30 days respectively.