Movie Retrospect
Retrospect : Shiva (1989)
By Sri
Oct 3, 2008 - 7:42:16 PM

S.S. Creations and Annapurna Studios
Shiva (1989)

Technical:
Color
Scope
Release Date: Oct 05, 1989

Cast:
Akkineni Nagarjuna ... Shiva Kumar
Amala ... Asha
Raghuvaran ... Bhavani
Saichand ... Inspector Venkat (Asha's brother)
Chakravarthy ... J. Durga Rao a.k.a J.D.
Subhalekha Sudhakar ... Mallik
Bhanu Prakash ... Principal
Tanikella Bharani ... Nanaji
Uttej ... Yadagiri (Canteen boy)
Murali Mohan ... Sharat (Shiva's elder brother)
Jithendra (Chinna) ... Chinna
Naresh ... Jagan
Kota Srinivas Rao ... Machiraju
Gollapudi Maruthi Rao ... Vishwanatham
Viswanath ... Ganesh
Baby Sushma ... Keerthi
Nirmalamma ... Malli's Grandmother
Other cast: Priya, Padma, etc.

Dialogues: Tanikella Bharani
Music: Ilayaraja
Director of Audiography: Deepan Chatterjee
Editing: Sattibabu
Dances: Sundaram
Art: Thota Tharani
Lyrics: Veturi Sundararamamurthy, 'Sirivennela' Seetharama Sastry
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, Nagur Babu, Chitra, S. Janaki
Associate Director: Nagendla
Co-Director: Vamsi
Assistant Directors: Uttej, Phani
Operative Cameraman: Srinivas Reddy, Vijayakumar
Steady Cam operator: Rasool
Publicity: Eshwar
Camera: S. Gopal Reddy
Producers: Yarlagadda Surendra, Venkat Akkineni
Story, Screenplay, Direction: Ram Gopal Varma

Songs:
Botany paaThamundi, matinee aaTa undi
Lyrics: sirivennela Seetharama Sastry
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, S.P. Sailaja, Chorus
Cast: Nagarjuna, Amala, Subhalekha Sudhakar, Chinna, and others

aanandObrahma gOvindO
Lyrics: Veturi Sundararamamurthy
Playback:
Cast: Nagarjuna, Amala

Kiss me, hello, wrong number!
Lyrics: Veturi Sundararamamurthy
Playback:
Cast: Nagarjuna, Amala

sarasaalu chaalu, SreevaarU, vELa kaadu
Lyrics: sirivennela Seetharama Sastry
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, Chitra
Cast: Nagarjuna, Amala

enniyallO malliyallO ennenni andaalO
Lyrics: Veturi Sundararamamurthy
Playback:
Cast: Nagarjuna, Amala

Story:
Shiva (Nagarjuna) comes from another town to attend a college where the local goons have been intimidating students. As he tries to take care of them and fight the goons, they become tougher and tougher and in the end, he has a one-to-one fight with the toughest Bhavani (Raghuvaran).

Nagarjuna and Amala in Siva

About the film:

- Debut film of Ram Gopal Varma
- Only film in the combination of Ram Gopal Varma and Ilayaraja.
- 17th film for Nagarjuna (Hindi version is the 21st)
- RGV was paid Rs 50,000 and got five percent of profits as part of the remuneration for Telugu version
- Ilayaraja was paid Rs 4 Lakhs for the film
- Raghuvaran was paid Rs 2 lakhs for the film
- The film's budget was around 85 lakhs
- This was the first film to collect Rs One Crores in Nizam area
- The producers distributed on their own in four centers (Nizam, Vizag, and Godavari areas)
- C.L. Narasa Reddy (producer of Geethanjali) distributed in Guntur area
- Before the film was released, the remake rights were asked for one lakh rupees. After film became a super hit the producers dubbed it into Tamil and sold it for eighty five lakh rupees. The Tamil version Idayam (released on Jan 12, 1990 in 24 centers) collected more than two crore rupees!
- The Hindi version costed around 1.15 crore rupees as Ramu wanted to change some scenes in Telugu. Except for the Botany paaThamundi... song, the rest of the songs were used as is from the Telugu version. Only Botany paaThamundi... song was shot separately in Agricultural College in Rajendra Nagar.

Raghuvaran in Siva

- The Hindi version was released on December 07, 1990. The film was made in association with Atluri Purnachandra Rao. It did extremely well in Mumbai and Kolkata.
- Director Puri Jagannath played as one of the student roles in the Hindi Version.
- Hindi version is longer than the Telugu version.
- Rohini dubbed for Amala in Telugu
- The film gave life to many newcomers like Chakravarthy, Jithendra, and Naresh, who were rechristened by their character names in real life - J.D., Chinna, and Jagan, respectively!
- Raghuvaran took 20 days to study how the dons in Mumbai live before accepting the role of Bhavani.
- Initially, Nagarjuna's role was named Bhavani and Raghuvaran's role was called Shiva. But, Nagarjuna loved the name Shiva and thus the names were exchanged.
- Producer Venkat Akkineni appears in a small role who comes to Raghuvaran for a settlement with a suitcase. Associate director Siva Nageswara Rao dubbed for him.
- Siva Nageswara Rao's name appears as Nagendla as the associate director.
- Krissnavamsi, who joined after half the film was over, is credited as Vamsi in the credits as a co-director. He worked for the Hindi film completely though.
- RGV won his first two Nandi awards for the film, as the Best Debutant Director and the Best Director.
- Shiva is the only south Indian film selected for the 1990 International Film Festival held in Kolkata (screened on January 19, 1990 at 8:30 a.m. in Empire Theatre).

Nagarjuna, Amala and Ramgopal Verma at Shiva 2006 audio release

Where it was shot

Shiva was almost completely shot in Andhra Pradesh, with only three days shooting done in Madras. aanandObrahma... song was shot in Borra Caves near Araku. The crew even crawled to reach interior locations of Borra Caves, and thus Shiva is the first movie to be shot in such interior-most areas in Borra Caves. Amala and Nagarjuna's bedroom song sarasaalu chaalu... was first shot in Usha Kiron Guesthouse, but they didn't like then when they saw the rushes later, and they reshot the whole song again in Usman Ali house, which later became popular for movie shootings. For the Telugu version, all the college scenes were shot at Keyes Girls High School, Secundrabad, even breaking the rear wall and erecting a gate there for the opening shots. For the Hindi version, these scenes were shot at A.G. College, Rajendra Nagar. Sudhakar's death scenes were done near Keesaragutta, while Ram Jagan's death scene was shot in Vengalarao Nagar. The cycle chase scene was shot near Somajiguda, behind the present Yashoda Hospital slum area and Yousufguda basti (At the end of the chase, the bus he catches is in Krishna Nagar.) The climax was shot in Swapnalok Complex, while the lift scene was shot in a specially erected set in Venus Studio in Madras.

The film was supposed to start formally on September 20, 1989 on Nageswara Rao's birthday. But due to Varma's mind-play, Kondarami Reddy's film that was supposed to start in February got cancelled and the shooting for Shiva started on February 16,1989. (Akkineni Nageswara Rao switched on the camera while RGV's father clapped the first shot on Nagarjuna and Amala.) The film completed shooting in 55 days over all. Keeravani was Varma's original choice for the film. When RGV was working for the film Rao Gaari-illu, Keeravani worked as an assistant to Chakravarthy. Varma became close to him there, and he wanted Keeravani as his music director when he becomes a director.

However, everyone suggested Ilayaraja's name, as Keeravani was still a newbie, and thus Ilayaraja stepped in. Musicians in Madras went on a strike before the re-recording started, and the team had to take the double positive to Bombay to get the recording done there. Varma liked Deepan Chatterjee's sound effects for Sindoorapuvvu and and approached him to handle sound effects for Shiva too. We all know how the sound effects helped in elevating the film.

RGV speaks on the inspirations of the movie...
The basic plot is a mix of Arjun, Ardha Satya, Kaal Chakra, etc. The plotline of Shiva was a direct rip-off from Bruce Lee’s Return of the Dragon, in which Lee comes from Hong Kong to work in a Chinese restaurant in Rome, where the local goons try to intimidate the owners. As he tries to take care of them and fights the goons, they get tougher and tougher and in the end, he has a one-to-one fight with the toughest Chuck Norris in the colossuem. Likewise, Nagarjuna comes from another town to attend a college where the local goons are intimidating the students. As he tries to take care of them and fight the goons, they become tougher and tougher and in the end he has a one-to-one fight with the toughest Raghuvaran on the top of a terrace.

- Chinna hitting the pole shot: is inspired from the shot where Kamal hits the pole and misses the train in Balu Mahendra's Moondram Pirai ( Vasantha Kokila, starring Kamal Hasan and Sridevi).
- Sudhakar hitting the rock scene is taken from Mansoor Khan’s Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, starring Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla.
- Shiva reacting to Naresh in hospital bed is inspired by a scene from MadMax.
- The climax fight on the terrace between Nagarjuna and Raghuvaran is inspired by the cliff fight between Gregory Peck and Omar Sharif in Mackenna’s Gold.
- The Ganesh Chaturthi chandaa collection scene has been taken from Dilip Shanker’s Kaal Chakra.
- Amala giving coffee to Nagarjuna before the song is from a Sanjeev Kumar’s film.
- The cycle chase is taken from Rahul Rawail’s Arjun.
- The scene where Nagarjuna’s dead friend’s mother slaps the inspector is from Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.

Whose hand holds the cycle chain?

Who can forget the famous cycle chain scene in Shiva! There is an interesting thing about it. The promos has the hand of Akkineni Venkat, shot by Gunnam Gangaraju who had Fountainhead Advertising Agency at that time! The same one was used in posters too. In the film, the hand which snatches the cycle chain is Cameraman Rasool's. After the shot, the hand which holds the chain becomes Akkineni Nagarjuna's.

Teja's invisible hand

All the posters were designed by Teja. He was inspired by the black and white posters for Maro Charitra, where you do not see any faces but only silhouettes of male and female. The same theme was used for Shiva too - you can only see the silhouettes of Nagarjuna and four people on the posters. Also, the name of Shiva has the angry face of Nagarjuna and the cycle chain posters were all his ideas, but the film credits does not have his name.

Rasool who handled steadycam...

Rajeev Menon worked as steadycam operator for the first schedule and quit the job after that. Then, his assistant Deenpal worked for a day but his lean personality was unable to handle the too-heavy camera. I was assisting S. Gopal Reddy gaaru at that time. He sent me to a crash course to work with steadycam before the second schedule started. While doing the chase scene with Nagarjuna and JD, I needed to follow them all over the college running with the camera. The chase scene was done in a single shot, and I was following them with my camera all the way! When the shot was over, both Nagarjuna and JD were worn out and breathless and then came Ramu asking to do a retake! I was ready immediately but Nagarjuna and JD were not - they said they were tired and cannot do the same scene again on the same day!

...Most of the chase scenes were done by Teja and I on the streets of Yousufguda and Krishna Nagar. Varma gaaru used to explain the shot to us and asked us to get the results, leaving to us the shot division and working on the shot. ...After the film was a super hit, I was quite sought after in the industry for steadycam shots. As I was working with Gopal Reddy gaaru, I used to seek his permission specially to oblige such offers as special requests.

Tanikella Bharani on Shiva
I first met Ramu in the sets of Rao Gaari-illu (Siva Nageswara Rao recommended me for the film, but I haven't done that film actually - D.V. Narasaraju gaaru did that film). Though he was an assistant director of the film, he used to be very silent and observing. He was introduced to me as Nagarjuna's friend. He used to be different from

Nagarjuna in Siva

others. I used to be close with him at that time. I didn't work for that film due to certain reasons. D.V. Narasaraju gaaru wrote the dialogues for that film. Then one day, I received a call from Ramu asking me to come and meet him at Annapurna Studios. I went there and he was sitting in the big office in the Studio. He informed me that he was directing a film, and I was happy and surprised. Then, he came up that he would like me to write the dialogues for that film. The first version I wrote was more of a comedy version, which he read and trashed it on the spot and said he'd like me to work on it in a serious way. That's how the present version came up. ...Then, one day when shooting was in progress, he called me to him. I was in jeans and shirt. He asked me to take the shirt off and wear a laalchii ( kurta) on my jeans and said I'd be perfect for the role. I was not informed what role I was doing! When I asked him which role it was, he informed that they tried some other actor for the role of Nanaji and had some problems to make it work out. Thus, I was chosen for the role. I agreed, and told them to leave my getup to me, changed my dress to kurta and pyjamah, applied oil to my hair and surmaa to my eyes and big sindoor to my forehead. He liked the getup too, and you know the result on the screen! The role gave me much recognition. I repeated my role in Hindi too. The credit of dialogues and everything goes to Ramu and not to me! I shifted my career towards than writing, eventually. I was paid Rs. 25,000 as a writer back then, and as an artiste, I was paid Rs. 35,000!

Chakravarthy on his debut
I wanted to become an artiste since I was a child. Uttej, who was a friend of mine, asked me to come and meet Ramu, without telling me that Ramu was conducting a screen test was new artistes. I even surpassed every other wannabe in the queue, and stepped into his office directly, since I didn't know I was supposed to stand in the same line! ...I failed in the screen test, and I returned home nearly crying! My sister consoled me saying it would be a loss to the film industry if I am not given a chance and that I need not be worrying! She was sure I'd get selected and that I'd be a good actor who'd get a lot of recognition. Ramu gaaru thought my communication was good and he felt that I had a spark in my eyes, and I was selected! ...After the movie completed its shoot, Ilayaraja gaaru came out of the recording room for re-recording and asked Ramu gaaru, "Who's this JD? I hate that guy!" Ramu gaaru said that it's good since that's what people should think about that role! That was the first and the best compliment I had received! Then, Mahesh ji (Mahesh Bhatt) and Paresh Rawal also said that same thing when they watched the Hindi version.

Tailpiece: Ramu remade the film in 2006 with police backdrop with Mohit Ahlawat and Nisha Kothari in the lead. The film was a disaster in both Hindi and Telugu!

shiva Celebrated 100 days in 22 centers.  Here are the collection of Gross and Share details of this blockbuster... 

Photos Courtesy : Telugunaadi
Acknowledgements : Pulagam Chinanarayana
Edited by Nachaki
Article by Sri