Dayalu Film

[Taj Barnett]

Itwas featured at the 45th IFFI in the Homage to ANR section on 29 November 2014. The film garnered several accolades. It won five Filmfare Awards South including the Best Film and Best Director in Telugu films category.

Radha Mohan and Krishna Veni are a couple who were initially in love with each other but later on lead a difficult marital life due to several misunderstandings and decide to file for divorce, against their six-year-old son's wishes. However, they die in a car accident on 14 February 1983 at 10:20 am near a clock tower on their way to the lawyer's office. 30 years later, their son, Nageswara Rao, becomes a rich and influential businessman. He happens to come across his parents' lookalikes, Nagarjuna and Priya. After befriending them, Rao decides to re-establish them as a couple but is shocked when Nagarjuna introduces his lover, Prema. Rao manages to dissolve the relationship with the help of his personal adviser, Girish Karnad. Unaware of this, Nagarjuna swears not to fall in love with anyone. At the same clock tower, Rao meets Dr. Anjali and falls in love with her at first sight. He helps her in admitting an injured old man to a nearby hospital and donates his blood. The injured man, Chaitanya, is shocked upon seeing the pair as they resemble his deceased parents, Seetharamudu and Ramalakshmi.

Seetharamudu was a barrister who returned from London upon his father's death to manage his family businesses. He was a zamindar and fond of cars. While looking through photos of potential brides, Seetharamudu selects a poor farmer, Ramalakshmi. Asked by a mediator, she accepts the proposal, without meeting Seetharamudu, but asks him for six months' delay as she has to buy new clothes for the bridegroom, following the village's tradition. Seetharamudu learns about this and meets Ramalakshmi in disguise as a reformed thief. With his help, Ramalakshmi is able to cultivate enough grain in three months and buy new clothes with that money. On the day of her marriage, she is pleasantly surprised to know that Seetharamudu is her chosen groom and they marry. On 14 February 1924, the couple goes out, but eight-year-old Chaitanya, suffering from a fever, fakes a stomach ache so that his parents return. The plan works and the couple rush home at high speed but die in an accident at 10:20 am near the same clock tower where Radha Mohan and Krishna Veni would die nearly 60 years later. Now, Chaitanya aims to reunite them without letting them recollect their past as they cannot bear the pain of losing him.

Chaitanya stays in Rao's house for further treatment while Nagarjuna joins them as he was expelled from his hostel due to mischievous trait- Nagarjuna drinks the whole day in the hostel talking about his broken love & when the principal enquiries about his health, he argues with him & in the meantime begins to experience nausea & as the argument proceeds, Nagarjuna starts to vomit on the principal & out of fury principal throws him out of the hostel. One night, Priya, remembering her past life, visits Rao's house only to see Nagarjuna sleeping beside him. She leaves the house in tears. While Rao attempts to court Anjali, Nagarjuna and Priya join Salsa dance classes where Priya constantly expresses her anger towards Nagarjuna. On Rao's birthday, 13 February 2014, Anjali proposes to him which he accepts. This makes Chaitanya very happy. Priya meets Nagarjuna there who is dressed as Radha Mohan, who reveals that he too recollected memories of his past life on the night she left the house in shock. He apologises for his wrong deeds and proposes her. She accepts his proposal and Rao is relieved.

The next day, Nagarjuna goes to a temple with Priya in a car which has no brakes and Rao chases them along with Anjali. Both of the couples are nearing the same clock tower where they died in their past lives. A worried Chaitanya is offered a lift by a young biker who follow them. On 10:20 am when all the four are safe near the clock tower, a lorry driven by a drunk driver is shown rushing towards them. The biker and Chaitanya jump from the bike, which goes on to hit the lorry tyre, distracting the lorry's path. The four thank Chaitanya, who urges them to thank the random-biker Akhil, who saved them in the nick of time by offering Chaitanya a lift.

After the release of 100% Love (2011), Nagarjuna decided to act and produce in an all-star film along with his father, actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao and elder son Naga Chaitanya. Nageswara Rao suggested Nagarjuna to begin the film as early as possible, because of his age. After examining and rejecting many scripts due to a perceived lack of novelty, Nagarjuna was advised by actor Nithin's father and distributor Sudhakar Reddy to listen to a script by Vikram Kumar, who was directing Nithin and Nithya Menen in Ishq (2012). Although he liked the script after the first narration, he agreed to act in the film only after watching Ishq before its theatrical release.[9]

Kumar requested Nagarjuna a year's time to complete and provide the finishing touches to the script. The latter read the script to director K. Raghavendra Rao, who suggested Kumar develop a simpler version, as the original was too complicated. The rewritten version was read to Nagarjuna in two and a half hours and to Nageswara Rao over six hours, as the latter wanted every detail to be clear. Due to the complex nature of the second half, the latter suggested Kumar to add a comedy plotline between grandfather and grandson. After its incorporation into the script,[9] and after considering the titles Hum and Trayam, Manam was chosen as the film's title on Nageswara Rao's suggestion.[10][11]

The film was officially launched on 3 June 2013 at Annapurna Studios office by conducting a small pooja ceremony.[12] Nageswara Rao died in late January 2014, making this film his last project as an actor. The promotion material featured the "Akkineni Family" as the film's producer. Nagarjuna revealed in an interview that he did so because Nageswara Rao taught his family the importance of it in his last days.[13] Reliance Entertainment co-produced and distributed the film.[14]

Nagarjuna engaged Samantha Ruth Prabhu as the second female lead, to be paired with Chaitanya in the film. This was her third collaboration with Chaitanya after Ye Maaya Chesave (2010) and Autonagar Surya (2014).[b] Her inclusion was confirmed in mid-October 2012 by Nagarjuna in an interview with The Times of India.[16]

Nagarjuna's younger son Akhil Akkineni was rumoured to be making a cameo appearance following Nageswara Rao's request.[20] Sources close to the film's unit initially denied those reports.[21] Samantha later tweeted that Akhil appeared for shooting his portions in the film.[22] When his health conditions worsened, Nageswara Rao asked Nagarjuna to bring the dubbing equipment to dub for his role fifteen days before his surgery as he did not want any other artist to do it if his voice worsened. He completed those activities just before he died on 22 January 2014. Only an appearance in a song remained incomplete.[23]

"My father [Nageswara Rao] always thought of Bachchan saab as one of the finest actors we have. I thought just having him in my film would be an honour to my father's memory. When I asked him, he immediately agreed. We didn't want Bachchan saab's appearance to be made public. We wanted it to be a surprise. But nothing he does can remain undisclosed."

Neetu Chandra, who worked with Kumar on Yavarum Nalam (2009), made a cameo appearance in the film. Nagarjuna's sister Supriya told the media that a few other actors also made cameo appearances in the film.[25] Rashi Khanna confirmed in early April 2014 that she too would make such an appearance.[26] Kumar convinced Nagarjuna to let Akhil make a cameo appearance towards the end of the film or in a special song. However an official confirmation was originally unavailable.[27][28] Amitabh Bachchan posted in his official blogging site on 27 April 2014 that he would make a quick cameo appearance in the film which would be his debut in Telugu cinema.[29] Lavanya Tripathi also made a cameo appearance on Kumar's request.[30] Akhil made a cameo towards the film's end, as he did not want to miss a chance of sharing the screen with his grandfather.[31]

Anup Rubens was selected to compose the film's music and background score in mid March 2013 marking his second collaboration with both Kumar and Chaitanya after Ishq (2012) and Autonagar Surya (2014) respectively.[b][32] Kumar read the script to Rubens without revealing the film's cast. After Rubens accepted a role in the film, both met Nagarjuna. Rubens said in an interview that he worked for fewer days when compared to his previous works and added that Kumar had a small story to tell within every song in the film. Due to Nageswara Rao's death, a song's tune was replaced with another tune and a few lines of the song Nenu Puttanu from the film Prem Nagar (1971).[33]

Harsha Vardhan was selected in late April 2013 to write the film's dialogues, in consideration of his work in Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde (2013).[34] Since the film was a period drama, Nagarjuna wanted an experienced veteran cinematographer, and approached P. C. Sreeram. As Sreeram was busy with I (2015), P. S. Vinod was finalised as the cinematographer, marking his return to Telugu cinema after Panjaa (2011).[13] Chennai-based costume designer Nalini Sriram, who worked for Ye Maaya Chesave, was selected as the film's costume designer. While all the artists had to give their inputs for the costumes, Nageswara Rao gave her full freedom to design the film's costumes.[35]

Rajeevan, also a part of the technical team of Ye Maaya Chesave, was chosen as the film's art director.[36] In a press interview during the first look launch, executive producer Supriya announced the remaining key technicians. Prawin Pudi was confirmed as the film's editor. Brinda was signed in on to choreograph the song sequences. FEFSI Vijayan was chosen as the stunt choreographer. Vanamali and Chandrabose were chosen to write the lyrics for the songs.[37]

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