Adavi Ramudu(1977)
Technical:
Cinemascope, Eastman Color
Reels: 18
Release Date: April 28, 1977
Cast:
N.T. Ramarao ... Ramu a.k.a Rammohana Rao
Jayaprada ... Padma
Jayasudha ... Chilakamma
Sridhar ... Jagga
Nagabhushanam ... Dharmaraju
Jaggayya ... Forest Officer Rangarao
Gummadi Venkateswara Rao ... Rajashekaram
Rajababu ... Pakala Bheemanna
Pandari Bai ... Rajyalakshmi
Satyanarayana ... Nagaraju
Other Cast: Mada Venkateswara Rao, Arja Janardhana Rao, Kavitha, Chalapathi Rao, Ramaprabha, Baby Rohini
Elephants: Devaki, Sujji, Vijji
Story:
Satya Chitra
Dialogues: Jandhyala
Lyrics: Veturi Sundararamamurthy
Playback: P. Susheela, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki
Music: K.V. Mahadevan
Assistant Directors: N.B. Chakravarthy, B. Gopal
Art: Thota
Publicity: Eshwar
Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao, Kotagiri Gopal Rao
Dances: Saleem
Operative Cameraman: K.S. Prakash
Assistant Cameramen: Navkanth, Vincent Jayanan
Camera: A. Vincent
Producers: Satyanarayana, Suryanarayana
Banner: Satya Charita
Screenplay, Direction: K. Raghavendra Rao
Songs:
kRshi unTE manushulu Rshulavutaaru
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam
Cast: N.T. Ramarao, Pandari Bai, and others
amma tODu, abba tODu, nee tODu, naa tODu
Playback: P. Susheela, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki
Cast: N.T. Ramarao, Jayasudha, Jayaprada
aarEsukObOyi paarEsukunnaanu harii, harii!
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, P. Susheela
Cast: N.T. Ramarao, Jayaprada
ennaLLak(u)ennaaLLak(u)ennaaLLaku, ennellu tirigochche maa kaLLaku!
Playback: P. Susheela, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki
Cast: N.T. Ramarao, Jayasudha, Jayaprada (and co)
kuhoo kuhoo... kOkilamma peLLiki kOnantaa pandiri
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam. P. Susheela
Cast: N.T. Ramarao, Jayaprada
chooDaraa chooDaraa oka choopu O Suleman miyya
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, P. Susheela, S. Janaki
Cast: N.T. Ramarao, Jayasudha, Jayaprada, and others
Story:
The film has simple storyline. A forest officer (NTR) goes undercover to nab the smugglers and also take revenge on the villains who killed his father.
Trivia:
-
This film marks the first combination of NTR, K. Raghavendra Rao, and Veturi Sundararamamurthy.Songs played a major role in the hit run of the film.
kRshi unTE...,
ennaaLLakennaaLLakennaaLLaku..., and the unforgettable
aarEsukObOyi paarEsukunnanu... went crazy with masses among the audiences. All the songs were super hits, thereby bringing a craze to Raghavendra Rao and his team.
-
NTR became the darling for mass appeal and that became a major plus point. His comedy act as Suleman miya was received well too.
-
N.B. Chakravarthy and B. Gopal were assistant directors for the film. They both did movies with Balakrishna later.
-
Navkanth and Vincent Jayanan, the assistant cameramen for the movie, later did many blockbuster movies as cameramen. Navkanth is the son of Art director Krishna Rao, who is the brother of producer-cameraman S. Venkataratnam of
Yamagola. Jayanan Vincent is son of cameraman Vincent, who is settled in Canada now.
-
Comedy dialogues by Jandhyala like
charitraDakku... cheppindi vinu!,
"raamaa!" anTE bootugaa vinapaDutundi were quite popular at that time.
-
Kids liked the episodes of elephants performing pooja and hero taking bath with the help of elephants. Even NTR's fight with the lion was entertaining to children.
-
The film set the trend to shoot the climax in a large scale! Earlier, climax was generally shot in villain dens but not in such a huge set or with so many people in the scene!
-
The trend set by Raghavendra Rao with this film is followed even now. Directors like Kondadarami Reddy and B. Gopal, to Puri Jagannath followed similar story lines to create wonders.
Producer Suryanarayana speaks...
After a disastrous
Prema Bandham, we planned
Adavi Ramudu with Ramarao
gaaru, and a two-films old Raghavendra Rao. His much-celebrated
Jyothi didn't start by that time. But Ramarao
gaaru knew KRR well enough since the time Raghavendra Rao assisted '
pouraaNika brahma' Kamalakara Kameswara Rao in
Pandava Vanavasamu and agreed readily to do the film. After completing the shooting, he just complemented us saying that shooting of this film shall remain as one of the best memories in his life. The film is such a big success that people of that generation speak volumes of it and feel nostalgic even today, wherever I go. I am really happy that I made such a film with my cousin Satyanarayana.
About the film:
Conception and Casting:
 |
| Sridhar, Jayasudha, N.T.Rama Rao, Jayaprada, K.V.Chalam with Sujji, Vijji and Bujji (elephants) |
Satya Chitra banner (of producers Nekkanti Veera Venkata Satyanarayana and Arumilli Suryanarayana) started their first film with Sobhan Babu's
Tahsildar Gaari Ammaayi (November 12, 1971), which was based on a serial by Kavilipati Vijayalakshmi in Andhra Prabha titled
Vidhi Vinyaasaalu. The film was directed by K.S. Prakasha Rao, father of K. Raghavendra Rao; Raghavendra Rao was an assistant director for that film. The film was one of the big hits for Sobhan Babu who played dual role in the film. After that film, they made
Prema Bandham (March, 12 1976 - the same day as NTR's
Aaradhana) with Sobhan Babu and Vanisree under the direction of K. Viswanath. It garnered good openings, thanks to Sobhan-Vanisree-Viswanath combo movies (
Chelleli Kaapuram,
Chinnanaati Snehitulu,
etc.), but it was soon declared a flop as it could not sustain the craze. (The film was released on the same day or NTR's
Aaradhana.)
When they were planning their next film, they approached Raghavendra Rao to work for them, whom they already knew as an assistant director as he just started taking up direction independently. NTR had already given them dates in September 1976. At that time, Kannada Rajkumar's movie
Gandada Gudi, made with a forest backdrop, went on to be a super hit in Kannada. This prompted the team to suggest that Jandhyala should work on the script and dialogues based on a forest backdrop.
Jayasudha, who already worked with K. Raghavendra Rao for his film
Raja, was chosen for an important role. Jayaprada was just a budding artist at that time with her
Sirisirimuvva being a super hit. Thus, she was taken for the heroine role. Sridhar was approached to do an important role opposite to Jayasudha. Jayasudha was not aware that she was doing the second role until the last minute, but since she already agreed to do the film, she just went ahead keeping faith on Raghavendra Rao. She got a lot of letters after the film was released to not do second lead role again, though she had a good role in the movie. (People were not aware that she signed this film before she did
Jyothi, as
Jyothi hit the screens earlier than
Adavi Ramudu and brought Jayasudha a good name.)
Though he had given the dates for
Adavi Ramudu, NTR was doing
Daana Veera Soora Karna at the same time, which he planned to complete before January in order to ready it for Sankranthi. So, he called the producers Satyanarayana and Suryanarayana and requested them to and inform that he'd give bulk dates once he completed the shooting for
Daana Veera Soora Karna.
>>> Page 2: Making of the Film
