Dookudu
Dookudu is a 2011 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film directed by Srinu Vaitla and written by Vaitla, Kona Venkat, and Gopimohan. It is produced by Ram Achanta, Gopi Achanta, and Anil Sunkara under the banner 14 Reels Entertainment. The film stars Mahesh Babu, Samantha, Prakash Raj, and Sonu Sood alongside Brahmanandam who played a supporting role. The film revolves around Ajay Kumar, a police officer and son of ex-MLA Shankar Narayana, who awakes from coma, but his health remains perilous. To aid his recovery, Kumar masquerades as a MLA fulfilling his father's ambition for him, while also hunting his father's foes. The film was inspired by the 2003 German film Good Bye, Lenin!.
The film began production on 28 June 2010 at Hyderabad. Shooting began on 22 October 2010 in Turkey and lasted till mid-September 2011. The film was predominantly shot in Hyderabad, with portions shot in Mumbai, Gujarat, Istanbul, Dubai, and Switzerland. Thaman S composed the music and M. R. Varma edited the film, while K. V. Guhan handled the cinematography after Prasad Murella left the project mid-way.
Dookudu was released on 23 September 2011 on 1800 screens worldwide. Upon release, Dookudu received positive reviews and was declared a success at the box-office. It was cited as "The biggest hit you've never heard of" by the Los Angeles Times. The film collected a distributor share of over 56.7crore in its lifetime and grossed roughly 102crore in its lifetime making it the highest-grossing Telugu film of that year and the second highest-grossing Telugu film of all time. In addition, the film won various accolades, which include seven Nandi Awards, six Filmfare Awards, eight SIIMA Awards and eight CineMAA Awards.
The film was remade in Bengali as Challenge 2 and in Kannada as Power. It was dubbed in Hindi as The Real Tiger, Tamil as Athiradi Vettai and Malayalam as Choodan, Odia as Dookudu, and Kannada as Police Power.
Plot
During the political realm of N. T. Rama Rao, Shankar Narayana is an independent MLA of the constituency of Shankar Nagar, which is named after him, in Hyderabad, and is regarded as a champion for the poor. When a truck collides with the car his brother Satyam and he is in, Shankar goes into a coma. Except for his family, everyone else presumes that he is killed in the accident. His son Ajay is a police officer in Mumbai who fights against the mafia and is on a mission to apprehend Mafia don Nayak who is involved in illegal drug trade, extortion, and arms trafficking.When he heads to Turkey in an undercover operation, he meets Prashanthi, the daughter of Ajay's senior police officer and soon falls in love with her. She initially rejects his advances, so he pretends to give up. However, he is successful in the undercover operation and arrests Nayak's brother Bunty. After returning to India, he again meets Prashanthi. He tells her father to appreciate what she does and not be so strict. This, to his surprise, makes her reciprocates his feelings. In an attempt to arrest Nayak, Bunty and the police commissioner are killed and Shankar's loyal follower Sivayya reveals to Ajay that Nayak, along with Shankar's rival, Mallesh Gowda, and Shankar's other followers Meka Narsingh Rao, Ambarpet Ganesh, were behind Shankar's accident, so Ajay plots to kill all of them.
When Shankar comes out of the coma, the doctors who treated him advise his family that his life is at risk if he encounters or hears anything upsetting, disturbing, or shocking. Ajay hides the events surrounding the accident and shifts his family to his previously abandoned mansion which is now being used for film-making. Ajay creates a dummy political set-up at this mansion. In the guise of a reality television program, Ajay tricks an aspiring but unsuccessful film actor Padmasri by making him believe that the television show is being sponsored by actor Akkineni Nagarjuna's television channel and that Nagarjuna wants to offer Padmasri high remuneration for his realistic performance in the show. On the other hand, aspiring actors Bokka Venkata Rao and Mallesh Goud are tricked by Ajay with a real estate business deal to exploit his criminal nexus.
Ajay keeps this drama under wraps from Shankar by making him believe that Ajay is also an MLA revered by people fulfilling his dad's wishes. He marries Prashanthi after gaining her family's consent much to Shankar's delight. Meanwhile, Ajay manages to kill Ganesh and Mallesh without the knowledge of anybody while Shankar believes that they died due to ailments. Nayak reaches Hyderabad to kill Ajay and Ajay's drama is exposed before everybody except Shankar. Meka Narsingh Rao is killed by Nayak while the latter's henchmen are killed by Ajay and others in an encounter. Nayak is later killed in a Ramlila event. Shankar also learns of Ajay's drama and is happy about the affection his son showed for him.
Cast
Production
Development
Ram Achanta, Gopi Achanta and Anil Sunkara under the banner 14 Reels Entertainment agreed to bankroll a film directed by Srinu Vaitla starring Mahesh Babu in the lead role after completing their debut venture Namo Venkatesa. Regarding the same, Vaitla said that it would be a romance action film and a majority would be shot in North India using a Super 35. Mahesh Babu's brother Ramesh Babu was a co-producer. Vaitla worked on the script for more than a year and shelved it temporarily for further modification as he felt it became monotonous and resembles his previous work. The film was officially launched on 28 June 2010 in Ramanaidu Studios at Hyderabad.Kona Venkat wrote the dialogues and Gopimohan penned the screenplay. S. Thaman was selected as the music director marking his first collaboration with Vaitla as the latter's regular music composer Devi Sri Prasad had shortage of dates to accommodate. The film was titled Dookudu in mid September 2010 despite initial reports stating that it may be titled Power. Prasad Murella was selected as the cinematographer who walked out after having an argument on the film's sets with Vaitla because of differences. K. V. Guhan was selected to finish the remaining part. Regarding the same, Vaitla said "I had made family dramas with Prasad before but in Dookudu, the demand increased from my side and we couldn't get in sync with each other. I liked the photography in Athadu done by Guhan. We gelled and he has done a fantastic job."
Casting
was selected as the female lead while Sonia Deepti was selected to play the role of her best friend. Srihari was selected for a crucial role but was replaced by Prakash Raj later. Mahesh Babu was reported to be seen as a police officer in the film. Sonu Sood was cast as the antagonist. Earlier, Kajal Aggarwal was rumoured to be the female lead while Venkatesh was rumoured to provide a voice-over. Gopimohan denied the latter's inclusion as a rumour while the former's inclusion remained unconfirmed.Ravi Prakash was selected for a supporting role. Brahmanandam and M. S. Narayana were also selected for supporting roles. Parvati Melton was selected for an item number. Meenakshi Dixit was selected for performing the title song. Regarding the limited role of Samantha, Vaitla clarified that a lot depended on the film's subject and it was done mainly to develop the chemistry between the lead pair.
Filming
began on 22 October 2010 in Turkey where a few action sequences and a song on Babu and Samantha were shot. The schedule lasted till November 2010 and the team returned to India on 10 November 2010. The second schedule was conducted in Dubai. After returning from Dubai, the next schedule began at Hyderabad on 27 November 2010. In mid January 2011, filming then moved to Ramanaidu Studios in Hyderabad. Scenes featuring Babu, Samantha and Deepthi were shot at Levis showroom in Banjara Hills of Hyderabad and the schedule ended on 29 January 2011.Filming continued in Gujarat where a song on Babu and Samantha was shot at the Little Rann of Kutch. On its completion on 11 February 2011, the next schedule was planned to be shot in Hyderabad from 15 February 2011 to 3 March 2011. The film's unit planned to leave to Chennai on 24 February 2011 for filming a song but the makers opted to shoot the same along with few scenes at Chiran Fort Club in Hyderabad from the next day. Few chase sequences were shot in Old city area of Hyderabad in mid March 2011. Filming continued at Mumbai from 20 March 2011 after a few action sequences in Ramoji Film City. The film was shot at Padmalaya Studios in late April 2011 after which filming was planned at Switzerland where a song and few scenes were shot.
Some scenes were shot in a central jail set erected in Ramoji Film City with which the Hyderabad schedule was completed in mid May 2011. Some comedy and action scenes were shot in the set which was earlier erected for Dhee, Old City and other areas apart from Ramoji Film City. A long schedule was shot in Switzerland later and Babu stayed back for taking rest on the schedule's completion and returned on 30 May 2011 to participate in the shoot from the next day. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the film's shoot was delayed multiple times and by late June 2011, 40 days of shoot was pending.
Key scenes featuring Babu, Brahmanandam, M. S. Narayana and others were shot in a private apartment in Somajiguda in mid July 2011. Few scenes were shot in Jayabheri House in late July 2011. The song "Adara Adara" was shot at Chiran Fort club in late August 2011 under the choreography of Dinesh. The film's climax sequences were shot in early September 2011 at Tolichowki in Hyderabad. A special set was erected at Ramoji Film City for the shoot of the item number on Babu and Melton which began on 6 September 2011. On its completion, the filming came to an end.