Songs:
Nizam-u pOri nazdeeku chEri...
Playback: Mano, Chitra, Eshwar, Uttej, Manik Rao
Cast: Urmila, Uttej, Manik Rao, E. Nivas, etc.

alupannadi undaa egirE alaku, edalOni layaku...
Playback: Chitra
Cast: Jagapathi Babu, Revathy

cheli meeda chiTikeDu daya lEdaa...
Playback: Mano, Chitra
Cast: Jagapathi Babu, Urmila

niggadeesi aDugu ee siggu lEni janaanni...
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam
Cast: sirivennela Seetharama Shastry, Revathy

suraajyamavalEni swaraajyamendukani...
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam
Background song

Story:
Durga (Jagapathi Babu) is in love with Anitha (Revathy) and all set to marry her and settled down in the life. but things change when his brother Mohanakrishna (Charan Raj) gets killed by Gurunarayana (Kota Srinivas Rao), the local MLA, and Durga wants to settle the score and cleanse the society too.

About the film:
Though the film story was credited to Mani Rathnam and Ramgopal Verma, the basic plotline was taken from Mario Puzo's popular novel Godfather. The book already inspired the film Neti Siddhartha (1990) starring Nagarjuna, Krishnam Raju, Ayesha Julka, and Sobhana, under the direction of late Sri Kranthi Kumar. (The film had wonderful music by the duo Lakshmikanth-Pyarelal - Osi manasaa neeku telusaa..., nuvvE kadaa naa sweet-u figure-u..., girilO laahiri, giri kOna pandiri..., etc.) But, Neti Siddhartha faithfully followed the screenplay of Godfather as well as Late Feroz Khan's Hindi film Dharmatma (1975). Gaayam followed the same basic story but a lot of changes were made to suit the nativity.

• The film gave fresh life to Jagapathi Babu as a solo hero.
• The film was debut film for Rasool as an independent cameraman.
• The film was debut film for music director Sri.
• The film helped Ramu to come out of the financial mess at that time.
• The film helped many people to become directors later in the film field: Krissnavamsi (credited as Vamsikrishna) worked as an Associate Director, Ramana (who did films like Paape Naa Praanam Gowri, Ela Cheppanu...!, etc.) was an Assistant Director for the film. E. Nivas who made the audio cover design for the film and also appeared in the picturization of Nizam-u pOri... became a Bollywood director with the film Shool and Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karegaa!. Rasool, the film's cameraman, also turned to direction later and made films like Okariki Okaru, Bhageeratha, and Sangamam. Editor Shankar directed films like J.D. Chekravarthy-starrer Suri.
• Assistant Cameraman Arun later became cameraman for many films. He also played a role in the film as the guy who gets killed in the petrol bunk. The scene was shot near his house in Ameerpet.
• Most of the film was shot in Hyderabad and Vizag.
• Lyricist sirivennela Seetharama Shastry did the role of Journalist Swami in the film.
• The person (Nanduri Ramakrishna) who did the role of the boss of sirivennela Seetharama Shastry and Revathy later became a relative to sirivennela Seetharama Shastry in real life - Seetharama Shastry's daughter was married to his son.
• Assistant Director Uttej and Annapurna Studios' Production Manager Manik Rao did small roles in the film (but were not credited in titles). Both of them did roles extended from the film Shiva.
• Revathy's voice was dubbed by Rohini (Late Raghuvaran's ex-wife), and Urmila's voice was dubbed by Rajitha.

alupannadi undaa egirE alaku, edalOni layaku... song was shot on R.K. Beach and Jagadamba Center. The climax was shot in Hyderabad's Vikranth Theater in Mozam Jahi Market. The theater had a great history - several films from Pakeezah to Himmatwalah were all big hits in that theatre. The theater later became a booking office for race course and was closed down completely. The fight scene of Sreesailam (Tarzan) was shot in Mozam Jahi Market. If you notice some shots of Gaayam, some of the shots are very similar to those of Shiva, the first time Durga goes to beat the people, the shot in the Mozam Jahi Market, etc. in particular. Though the stunts were credited to Horseman Babu, most of them were composed by Ramgopal Verma himself. (Notice the boxing punch styled similar to that in Shiva).

Ramgopal Verma was in a deep financial mess before Gaayam. He produced and directed Antham and Raathri in Telugu and Hindi. Both films flopped in both languages. At the same time, he was also producing the film Money. In order to complete the film, he needed some money and he asked Suresh Babu to adjust it. Suresh Babu was ready to give on a condition that he should make a film with Venkatesh. As Ramgopal Verma just did a film with Venkatesh ( Kshanakshanam), he was not ready to do another one immediately and was also not happy at the condition. Thus, he approached Surendra and was ready to do a film for S.S. Creations.

Ramgopal Verma wanted to choose Madhuri Dixit for the film Antham/ Drohi, but as her dates were not available for six months to come and Nagarjuna could not kept waiting for that long, Ramgopal Verma signed Urmila for Antham/ Drohi based on Boney Kapoor's suggestion. The film failed and people wrote about the movie and about Urmila on the negative side. While doing Drohi, he and Mani Rathnam wrote the script of Gaayam based on the classic Godfather series. It was Mani who suggested Chitra's role in the film and suggested Urmila for that role. That's not because he thought of her as a great actress or anything - he just thought she should be okay for the role. Now, while shooting for Gaayam, Ramgopal Verma was mesmerized by a certain dance movement composed by Urmila herself and he got inspired to make Rangeela. Dance master Suchitra missed her transportation for the song shooting of cheli meeda chiTikeDu daya raadaa... in Errakondalu near Vizag and thus Ramgopal Verma asked Urmila to compose her own choreography for the song, which she did. Her dance movements gave the idea of Rangeela. (Information Courtesy: Ramgopal Verma's Blog)