Poweris a 2014 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film directed by K. S. Ravindra and produced by Rockline Venkatesh under the banner Rockline Entertainments, both marking their debut in Telugu cinema. The film stars Ravi Teja, Hansika Motwani and Regina Cassandra. S. Thaman composed the music.
The film revolves around two similar looking people, Baldev Sahay - a corrupt ACP in Kolkata and Tirupathi - a person aspiring to become a police officer in Hyderabad. The home minister of Bengal recruits Tirupathi to play Baldev to catch a gangster rescued by Baldev. Rest of the story is all about why Baldev became corrupt and how Tirupathi executed the unfinished mission of Baldev.
Production began on 11 December 2013. The film's talkie part was shot in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangkok while two songs were shot in Bulgaria marking it the first Telugu film to be shot there. The film was a Super Hit at the box-office. Principal photography ended on 14 August 2014. The film was released on 12 September 2014. This film was remade into Bengali with the same title in 2016.
Baldev Sahay, a corrupt yet valiant ACP in Kolkata, who attempt to save a dreaded gangster named Ganguly Bhai, but he loses his life and Ganguly is kidnapped by Baldev's allies Kundan and Rajeev. The Home Minister Jayavardhan is concerned about Ganguly being apprehended. Upon hearing the news of Baldev's death, his mother loses consciousness and is admitted to the hospital. Jayavardhan promises to the people that he will apprehend Ganguly Bhai and offer his resignation if he is not successfully doing the same.
In Hyderabad, Tirupathi, a doppelganger of Baldev Sahay, is a happy-go-lucky guy, whose sole aim in life is to become a cop, but doesn't achieve success. He lives with his brother-in-law Animutyam, who is an CI. To change his fortunes, Tirupathi approaches Nirupama who claims to be a trader in gemstones relating to astrology, which can change a person's fortune, but in reality she is just a con artist. She gives a ring to Tirupathi, which actually has no powers.
Tirupathi ends up helping his brother-in-law to apprehend a dangerous convict. However, Animutyam takes all the credit at the press meet which Tirupathi also attends. Animutyam later reveals that he had rejected Tirupathi's application to the police academy. However, Jayavardhan notices Tirupathi on the news, and tells him to pretend as Baldev and put Ganguly in prison. Tirupathi accepts and visits Kolkata, where he is posted to Kalighat and impersonates as Baldev, and frees Ganguly from Kundan and Rajeev. Tirupathi takes Ganguly to Jayavardhan, but Jayavardhan stabs him and reveals that Ganguly is his actual brother and not Baldev as he had made him believe earlier, and leaves. Kundan and Rajeev tracks down Tirupathi and admit him to the hospital. When Thirupathi recovers, they narrate Baldev's past.
Past: Kundan and Rajeev are appointed as Baldev's assistants by the police commissioner of Anti-Corruption Bureau A. K. Mishra to acquire proofs of Baldev's corruption. Baldev is always accompanied by Venkat, a corrupt cop along with Kundan and Rajeev everywhere. He meets Ganguly and makes a deal with him for a huge ransom to hand over Tiwari, the only witness in the murder case of ACP Gautham and his family, who were killed by Ganguly and his brother Chotu on the former's order.
Meanwhile, Baldev falls in love with Vaishnavi, a philanthropist who also reciprocates his feelings. To get the proof of Baldev's corruption, Kundan and Rajeev conduct a raid on his house where Vaishnavi is also present, who is livid on Baldev for maligning the goodwill of "Aasha Foundation" managed by her. Kundan and Rajeev also find a flash drive with a list of many cops whom they suspect of being involved with Baldev in his corruption scam. However, they are surprised that even they are on the same list.
Meanwhile, Baldev kills Chotu and arrests Ganguly for killing ACP Gautham, with Tiwari serving as the chief witness. When Baldev is about to present Ganguly and Tiwari in the high court, Venkat sells the evidence documents for a huge bribe along with the information regarding Tiwari and Baldev. Acting upon this information, Ganguly's goons kill Baldev's uncle and then proceed to attack Baldev and Tiwari at the court. However, Vaishnavi and Tiwari are killed in the hit while Baldev escapes. Baldev retaliates and kidnaps Ganguly from Venkat's custody with the help of Kundan and Rajeev. In the process, he meets with a car accident in a hilly area and his car, which explodes, thus killing him.
Present: Now realizing the truth, Thirupathi decides to set things right. Jayavardhan provides falsified evidence against the incumbent Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh by claiming him to be the one, who was backing Ganguly Bhai the whole time. After this incident, the Chief Minister is forced to step down and subsequently is arrested. Later, Jayavardhan gives his nomination for the post. Ganguly Bhai, despite being imprisoned, starts operating his crime regime from within.
Tirupathi rejoins the force and heads to Jayavardhan's house and makes a deal with him so as to keep his post provided that he, Tirupathi, turns a blind eye to all the activities of Ganguly Bhai. Tirupathi then becomes close to Jayavardhan's PA, Raja. who becomes agitated after Jayavardhan insulted him. Tirupathi introduces him to Nirupama and gets her to give him a ring to change his fortunes. However, the rings are actually cameras embedded inside the fake gemstone with a microchip to capture audio. With the help of this ring, Tirupathi exposes Jayavardhan's corruption to the media. Jayavardhan gets cornered and runs away "underground" along with his brother. In the process, he kidnaps Nirupama, Rajeev, Kundan, and Animutyam's Family.
Meanwhile, A.K. Mishra, who has been following up this case with close interest reveals to Jayavardhan and Ganguly that Tirupathi is none other than Baldev. Right before the car explosion, Baldev is thrown off the car and falls onto a freight carrier, rendering him unconscious. The truck carries him to Hyderabad and is taken to the hospital, where Animutyam is provided with the case. Animutyam's wife had lost her brother named Tirupathi, long back in her childhood and has been searching for him ever since. Realizing that Baldev is suffering from amnesia, Animutyam decides to pass him off as Tirupathi to keep her happy, but mainly to satisfy his wife's long search without spending much.
Mishra warns Jayavardhan and Ganguly that if Tirupathi discovers the truth, the consequences will be even deadlier. Tirupathi crashes into the stronghold of Ganguly Bhai, where he arrests Jayavardhan and Ganguly is shot by a remorseful Venkat. Kundan, Rajeev and everyone decides not to reveal the truth to Tirupathi/Baldev and thus spare him the anguish over his uncle's and fianc's death. Tirupathi later marries Nirupama and lives happily ever after in Kolkata while still posing as Baldev Sahay.
Before release of the Gopichand Malineni's directorial Balupu, Ravi Teja listened to the script narrated by K. S. Ravindra, one of the writers of Balupu and finalized the film as his next project.[1] Director cum producer Y.V.S. Chowdary, who produced Ravi Teja's Nippu in the past was announced as the producer of the film. The film was launched on 1 September 2013 at Y.V.S. Chowdary's office in Hyderabad.[2] But because of his financial problems, Y.V.S. Chowdary walked out of the project. Later prominent Kannada producer Rockline Venkatesh agreed to produce the film.[3] The film had a second opening ceremony on 11 December 2013 at Filmnagar in Hyderabad.[4] Kona Venkat, S. Thaman, Allan Amin and Gautham Raju were roped in as the dialogue writer, music director, fights choreographer and editor of the film respectively and coincidentally they all were a part of Ravi Teja's Balupu. Apart from them, Jayanan Vincent, Brahma Kadali and A. Kumar Varma were roped in as the cinematographer, art director and production executive of the film respectively.[5] The film's launch made headlines on 11 December 2013 (i.e. 11/12/13), a special calendar date that comes once in every 100 years.[6] The film's title Power was declared on 24 January 2014. Incidentally, it was the title for Ravi Teja's film under Meher Ramesh's direction which never took off.[7]
After Ravi Teja was signed to play the lead role, Hansika Motwani was roped in to play the female lead opposite Ravi Teja marking her first collaboration with him. She confirmed the news in her Twitter. She added "I can't reveal much about the character as it's premature to comment on it. But all I can say is that my role would be very unique and something that the audience have not seen so far. All this while, I've been playing bubbly and chirpy roles. But this time, my role is a performance-oriented one and I'm looking forward to it."[8] Apart from them, Prakash Raj, Brahmanandam, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Brahmaji, Posani Krishna Murali, Mukesh Rishi, Ajay, Sampath Raj, Subbaraju, Sapthagiri, Surekha Vani and Jogi Brothers were said to be the other vital cast in the film during the press meet held on the second opening ceremony of the film.[9] It was also reported that Ravi Teja would play the role of a police officer in this film.[10] Soon after the launch of the film, reports emerged that the team is searching for an actress for the role of the second heroine and few actresses names were shortlisted.[11] It was also reported that the makers recruited popular Hindi Television actress Ragini Khanna as the second heroine which marks her South Indian debut.[12]
But Regina Cassandra was selected as the second heroine which she confirmed later.[13] In an interview to The Times of India in early March 2014, Regina, about her role in the film, spoke "It's a big project for me and I'm quite excited about it. I like experimenting with my looks in films and I got a chance to do something radically different in terms of my appearance in Power. Besides, I have a strong characterization in the film. I hope I can pull off the role and get the audience in tune with the emotion in the film. It's going to be a challenging task for sure".[14] After watching Suseenthiran's Pandiya Naadu, Harish Uthaman was selected for a negative role in the film by K. S. Ravindra. About his role, Harish said to the IANS that he would be playing the role of Sampath Raj's brother in this film. This marked his debut in Telugu cinema.[15] It was revealed later that Ravi Teja's character is named ACP Bal Dev while Regina's character is named Vaishnavi.[16][17]
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