Money (1993)
Technical:
Color
Cinemascope
Banner: Varma Creations
Cast:Chinna ... Bose Renuka Sahani ... Renu J.D. Chakravarthy ... Chakri Paresh Rawal ... Subba Rao; Jayasudha ... Vijaya; Brahmanadam ... Khan Dada; Tanikella Bharani ... Manikyam; Varuviral Krishna Rao ... House Owner (Renu's dad); Sharat Saxena ... Police Officer; Bhikshu ... Killer; Manik Rao ... Office boy;Uttej ... Yadgiri
Kallu Chidambaram ... Defense Lawyer
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, Nagur Babu (Mano), Chitra, Sri Murthy, Chinna, J.D. Chakravarthy, Jayasudha,
sirivennela Seetarama Sastry
Lyrics:
sirivennela Seetarama Sastry
Editing: Shivashankar
Publicity designs: Mallik
Choreography: Suchitra, Siva Subramanyam
Music: Sri Murthy (debut)
Photography: Teja
Associate Directors: Uttej, Ramana
Production Managers: Raju, Giri
Camera Assistants: K. Rajendra Prasad, Sameer, Shyam K Naidu
Co-Producer: Kalidindi Prasad
Producer: Ram Gopal Varma
Story, Screenplay, Direction: Siva Nageswara Rao
Songs:
lEchindE lEDiki parugu...
Playback: S.P.Balasubrahmanyam, Chakravarthy, Chitra
Cast: Renuka Sahani, J.D. Chakravarthy, Chinna
bhadram, be careful, brother-U!...
Playback: Sri Murthy, Chakravarthy
Music: Keeravani
Cast: Kota Srinivas Rao, Uttej, Narsing, Paresh Rawal
chakravarthikii veethi bicchagattekii...
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam
Music: Keeravaani
Cast: J.D. Chakravarthy, Chinna, Renuka Sahni, Varuviral Krishna Rao,
etc.
paaDu kaburu vinagaanE paikam testaaDaa... (Parodies)
Playback: Mano, Chakravarthy, Chitra
Cast: Chinna, J.D.Chakravarthy, Jayasudha, Renuka Sahani
Wah, rE, wah! Emi face-u!...
Playback: Sri Murthy,
sirivennela Seetarama Sastry
Cast: Brahamanandam, Tanikella Bharani, J.D. Chakravarthy,
etc.
anaganaganaganagaa ananE lEdinkaa... (Song not included in the movie)
Playback: Jayasudha, J.D. Chakravarthy, Chinna,
etc.
Story:
Two unemployed youth who kidnap a wealthy neighbor for easy money and then they find out that her husband wants to kill her for the property, and they eventually rescue her from his plans.
About the film:
-
The film was a debut film as director for Siva Nageswara Rao. The film is such a hit that even after sixtreen films, he is still remembered as the director of
Money.
-
Now ace cameramen Shyam K. Naidu and Sameer Reddy worked as assistant cameramen for this film worked under the cameraman-turned-director Teja.
-
Sri Murthy worked for only a few Telugu films such as
Maa Aavida Meedottu, Mee Aavida Chaalaa Manchidi! afterwards.
-
This is the first film for J.D. Chakravarthy as one of the lead actors. After this, he did
One by Two along with Srikanth. He later got promoted to solo hero films with
Gulabi.
-
Production designers Raju and Giri later joined with Praveen and made films such as
Kalusukovalani... under RPG banner.
-
The film was remade as
Love ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karegaa in Hindi much later by Verma's protége E. Niwas. Aftab Shivdasani and Fardeen played the roles of Chinna and J.D. while Saif played the role of Paresh. The Hindi version had a lot of changes though.
Siva Nageswara Rao speaks...
My background:
I come from a village Uppalapadu near Guntur. My father was a middle-class farmer and I am his only son, preceded by one elder sister and succeeded by two younger ones. Ours was a joint family and my paternal uncle had two sons and two daughters. I completed my X class in my village. ...From my VII class itself, I was fascinated by dramas and always want to direct my own plays. I acted as the Cultural Secretary when I was a student of intermediate; I've later done my degree from Andhra University as a correspondence course due to financial problems in the house.
After my degree, I started doing commission-based business, buying rice from farmers and selling it to wholesale dealers. With these profits and with other friends who joined me, we gave an advance of Rs.15,000 towards the rights of a film called
Kanchi-ki Cherani Katha, but before the release, we had to pay another Rs.30,000, which we didn't have. So, we borrowed it as a loan from others with a condition that the lender would take all the initial collections. The film was, however, a disaster, and was a complete washout!
A person from our village was in Chennai and whenever he visited his native place, he used to tell a lot of stories about how he became big in film industry. He used to tell that he was very close to Dasari
gaaru, but he never told me where he lived in Chennai. But, that didn't stop me from gathering information that he was working with Dasari
gaaru. With that piece of a clue, and with sixty rupees in my pocket, I boarded a coal lorry from Uppalapadu to Chennai in order to save money, and I finally landed in Chennai. When I went to Sree Dasari's office, I realized that the person from my village was working as an office boy there!
I did not know what to do after my money exhausted. I even sold of my watch and did some extra roles in films like
Burripalem Bullodu,
Sannaayi Appanna,
etc. I was paid Rs.100 for three days of work, but that was not a permanent situation since I could not continue even that without a membership card! For a while, I worked as an assistant accountant in a film company, assuming they may give me some break in films, but I quit the job there too, as they were not paying any money. Finally T.V. Prasad (alias Chitti) gave me a break. He gave me a chance to work as an assistant director for the film
Ammayiki Mogudu-Mamaku Yamudu (made under Poompuhar Productions, produced by Karunanidhi's nephew), but that film was almost in completion stage by then and ended in 15 days after I joined. There, I met Taruni Rao who was also an assistant director for that film. Seeing my work there, the producer asked the production manager to pay me Rs.500 but that production manager made me sign a blank voucher and paid me Rs.50!
After that film, Chitti
gaaru took me to Vijayanirmala
gaaru who was shooting for the film
Bhogimantalu and joined me there as an assistant director. I learnt a lot from Vijayanirmala
gaaru and worked under her for the films
Antham Kaadidi Aarambham,
Doctor-Cine Actor,
etc.. I later worked with V. Madhusudhana Rao
gaaru for
Jagannatha Ratha Chakraalu, with Lenin Babu
gaaru for
Maro Kurukshetram, with S.A. Chandrasekhar
gaaru for
Devanthakudu,
Balidaanam,
Intiko Rudramma,
etc.. I finally started working for Kranthi Kumar
gaaru with
Swathi and was a part of his direction team for six years.
When Taruni Rao got an offer to direct the film
Rao Gaarillu, I joined him too. That was where I met Ram Gopal Varma, who was also assisting him. I think that was his first film (Ramu also worked for the film
Pratidhwani under B. Gopal.) While doing that film, Ramu offered me to assist him in
Shiva. I gladly agreed and thus started working with Ramu. Between
Rao Gaarillu and
Shiva, I also worked with Rajendrababu
gaaru for
Prema Yuddham for a brief period but I had to leave when I left him upset by saying that he was wasting a lot of money. While doing the film
Kshanakshanam, I told Ramu that I'd like to do an independent film and that I was looking for a producer. Ramu then said that he would produce my maiden film as a director. At that time, a Hindi film called
Sauda was released, whose theme was an insurance scam, but Ramu suggested that I should do a film based on the English film
Ruthless People.
