This is not a review or behind the scenes kind of article. It’s just my experience with a movie called “Arjun Reddy (2017).”
There was this discussion in Social Media regarding a teaser of a new movie by Vijay Devarakonda. He’s riding on the success of blockbuster “Pelli Choopulu (2016)”, but this teaser was a bit different from the role he played in his earlier film.
The teaser was an instant hit and got attention from the Youth, all thanks to the BGM & intense dialogue delivery from Vijay and, of course, controversies regarding the usage of MC in the dialogue. Though the teaser was promising one, still, there were a few doubts on the movie as we already got few disasters films where the teaser/trailer looks superb but movies turned out to be a disappointment.
Except for Vijay, the rest of the cast (Heroine, Director, etc.) are debutants. As the teaser got released in Feb, I thought the movie would be released in May or June, as we have “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017)” on April 28. But things got worse for the team, as there was no update from the team members regarding the movie date.
After a few months, they released a single (Break up Song), sung by Revanth which was a hit but still no word about the audio release or movie release date. After a few months, the rest of the songs were released followed by a pre-release event & a trailer with a release date of 25 Aug 2017.
At this point, everyone was eagerly looking for the movie to be released, and also Baahubali 2 went on to become the highest collected movie in India. The pre-release business was done at 6 Cr. Though 6 Cr. was a huge task thanks to the controversies around the movie regarding cuss words, posters with kiss scene, etc. there was a huge buzz.
On the release day, the movie opened to a super hit talk and a cult status from youth though few audiences rejected it for excessive usage of cigars, alcohol, etc. This movie was a breather for me, as I was bored with all the sacrifice kind of stories, so wanted a new one. The good thing about the movie is the business it did; final collections were close to 50 Cr gross declaring it as Quadruple Blockbuster (400% recovery). Everyone from movie team got the appreciation of their work.
Behind the scenes (Other Side of the Coin)
After all these, I was more interested in what was going on sets while filming & producers mind. After a couple of interviews with Sandeep Vanga (Director) and Vijay Deverakonda, these are the few things I have gathered.
Sandeep approached many producers with Arjun Reddy script, but producers suggested some changes in the script which he wasn’t willing to do it. After a couple of attempts, his brother (Pranay Vanga) decided to produce the film. They sold the ancestor assets and started the movie trusting his brother.
After going through the script, Vijay had full confidence on the script and helped Sandeep in casting. He took just five lacs remuneration for the film (after the success they shared few profits). The main reason for the delay in film release is due to music composer Radhan. From Sandeep point, Radhan delayed the music which further delayed the movie release that’s the reason the movie was released in Aug where the teaser was released in Feb. Though all the songs are composed by Radhan but the BGM was done by Harshavardhan Rameshwar.
After all these struggles and everything, Sandeep got his much-deserved success & appreciation. Another interesting snippet is while shooting the film, Sandeep named his newborn baby as Arjun Reddy.
If you think only the director is going through all the tough conditions, you need to know the story behind Shalini Pandey, the actress of Arjun Reddy. As an Engineer graduate, her father forced her to take up an IT job, but her interest was on acting and she convinced him to sign this film. For some reasons, it took five months to start the film, but the pressure was mounting on her from her father to take a job then she decided to shift to Mumbai and try her luck.
The situation got worse after that; she never shared her exact location in Mumbai to her father, and he threatened to file a missing case, even she told him that she would raise a complaint on her father that he’s torturing him. Amidst all these, the shooting was done and the film released. Now she’s back with her father. He apologized and happy about her success.
After Arjun Reddy, Vijay is back with Geetha Govindam, the film already got colossal appreciation and on the way to a double blockbuster. Sandeep is getting ready for Hindi remake, and Shalini is busy with a couple of movies.
The reason for sharing all these things, as a common audience these things don’t matter. For some people, all they want is that their favorite hero should be on top regardless of what others make. We may be doing some things which gonna hurt a family out there (spreading negative reviews, piracy, etc.) There are people passionately working on films with their heart and soul, sometimes all their money and life in a single film.
Arjun Reddy isn’t a typical film; it’s a Telugu movie which introduced the word Quadruple Blockbuster to the industry. The passion of the director, who was waiting for seven long years to work on his dream of directing a Telugu film, an actor’s and actress’s dedication towards a film and moreover a family faith in their son. This is what Arjun Reddy is about.
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