Chicago Films
America Alludu (1985)
Technical:
Color
Reels: 14
Censor Date:April 11, 1985
Release Date: 6th June 1985
Cast:
Suman ... Dr. Raju
Bhanupriya ... Radha
Kim ... Mary
Kantha Rao ... Raghava Rao
Dr. Tambu ... Dr. Prakash Rao
Suryakantham ... Kanakadurgamma
Janaki ... Parvathamma
Chidatala Apparao ... Postman
Mukku Raju ... Dance master
K. Vasu ... America Apparao
Chicago Artists: Mutyala Padmasri, Prasanna, Sujatha, Chowdary, John Jones, Ron, Vemana Jampala
Story: Velcheru Narayana Rao
Dialogues: Satyanand
Lyrics: Veturi Sundararamamurthy, Velcheru Narayana Rao (tEne vennela...)
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, P. Susheela, S.P. Sailaja, Tinkureddy Harinatha Raju
Associate Director: Dr. Tambu
Assistant Director: K. Balachari
Editor: Nayani Maheshwara Rao
Camera: M.V. Raghu
Music: Chakravarthy (Assistants: Krishna-Chakra)
Producers: Vemuri Srilatha, Vemuri Ramesh
Screenplay, Direction: K. Vasu
Songs:
gOmaata maa amma gOdaari gangamma
Playback: P. Susheela
Cast: Suman, Bhanupriya
tEne vennela neeli minnulaa
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki
Cast: Suman, Bhanupriya
(Shot at Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Niagara, Chicago, Washington, D.C., etc.)
aalanTU annaaka moguDanTU unnaaka
Playback: P. Susheela
Cast: Suman, Bhanupriya
nee venTE nEnunTaa
Playback: Tinkureddy Harinatha Raju
Cast: Suman, Kim
naa vaalujaDa kRshNavENi
Playback: P. Susheela
Cast: Bhanupriya
Story:
Dr. Raju (Suman), a noted doctor in Chicago, marries his maradalu Radha (Bhanupriya), a village-bred girl. When they come to the USA after their marriage, Radha is initially unable to adjust to the new lifestyle of the West and irks Raju frequently with her mistakes arising due to innocence and ignorance. Due to her mistake, one of Raju's patients at the hospital dies, and an upset Raju abandons Radha. Radha does not want to go India as an abandoned wife, and decides to continue to stay in the USA. How she gets on her feet and takes care of her child and eventually wins Raju's heart is said in heart-warming fashion.
Producer Dr. Ramesh Vemuri on the film:
Basically, I am from Vijayawada, and my grandfather and father were associated with films even before I was born. My father Vemuri Gopalakrishna was a distributor, who distributed films like Samsaaram, Puttillu, Vaali-Sugreeva, etc. in the name of Janata Pictures. My grandfather also made films under Gokula Krishna Films banner, such as Parivarthana and Palletooru with NTR. When we lost money in films like Puttillu and Vaali-Sugreeva, my father stopped film business and moved on to other businesses. I came to the USA in 1974 and eventually settled down. Being ardent movie buffs like many others, we joined the Chicago Movie Club. The government had just announced a subsidy to movies made by new producers in the USA, and we thought of giving it a shot. We then contacted Jandhyala gaaru to do a film for us and even paid him an advance, but he was too busy then and did not have a visa to the USA either. Thus, I contacted my close family friend K. Vasu to do the film for me. He had just come to the USA for a trip and thus had a valid visa already, and he readily agreed to do the film too. We approached our good friend Velcheru Narayana Rao gaaru for the story. Initially, the story was about four friends who come from diverse backgrounds and start working in the USA. We even shot some scenes with Suman and other actors in the USA accordingly. The story goes like the three guys (other than Suman) marrying - one marries an American girl, another marries the girl he loved, and so on - and Suman sees their lifestyle. After shooting for two days, we felt that such a story wouldn't suit our style and changed the story. Suman was just an upcoming star at that time and we paid one lakh rupees as his remuneration for the film, and the female lead Bhanupriya was paid around Rs. 35,000 as the remuneration.
Most of the shooting was done in our house as well as some friends' houses. We shot for 15 days in the USA and for 10 days in India. The costliest sequence of the was its climax, for which we bought about 60 cars though we only used three cars for the chase. In order to be prepared for accidents, we had a backup of 20 similar cars for each one, painting them all similarly and so on, and had taken a million-dollar insurance for the chase sequence. Apart from these, we had not paid anything for locations or permissions, thanks to the government's cooperation too. We released the film on our own, except for the Godavari area. The film ran for 100 days in 10 centers.
