Srimanthudu () is a 2015 Indian Telugu-language action drama film written and directed by Koratala Siva. The film is produced by Mythri Movie Makers and G. Mahesh Babu Entertainment. The film stars Mahesh Babu, Shruti Haasan, Jagapati Babu and Rajendra Prasad. Sampath Raj, Mukesh Rishi, Sukanya and Harish Uthaman appear in supporting roles. It was distributed globally by Eros International.
The film tells the story of Harsha Vardhan (Mahesh Babu), a young man who inherits a business empire from his father Ravikanth (played by Jagapati Babu). Urged by his friend Charuseela (Haasan) to learn about his and his father's ancestral roots in a remote village named Devarakota, Harsha adopts the village and spends some time trying to improve the standard of living of the local people and the infrastructure of the village. His efforts anger the local crime boss Sashi (played by Sampath Raj) and his brother Venkata Ratnam, a politician (played by Mukesh Rishi).
Srimanthudu was initially going to be produced by UTV Motion Pictures, but the company backed out, citing differences with Siva. In addition to directing the film, Siva also wrote the screenplay. Devi Sri Prasad composed the score, and R. Madhi was the cinematographer. Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao edited the film. Production began on 11 August 2014 at Ramanaidu Studios in Hyderabad. Principal photography began on 7 November 2014 in Pune, and lasted till mid-June 2015. Though most of the film was shot in and around Hyderabad, a few portions were filmed in Tamil Nadu and Malaysia.
The film opened to positive critical reception and was a commercial success, grossing over 200 crore globally on a budget of 6070 crore and becoming the second highest-grossing Telugu film of all time in its initial release. After the film's release, many actors, bureaucrats and politicians announced plans to develop the backward villages and encouraged the adoption of villages in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The film went onto win three Nandi Awards including Best Popular Feature Film and three Filmfare Awards South including Best Telugu Actor for Mahesh Babu. It also won the state Gaddar Award for Third Best Feature Film. The film's Tamil dubbed version, titled Selvandhan, were released simultaneously worldwide on 7 August 2015 in around 2500 screens.
Plot Harsha Vardhan is the sole heir of his father Ravikanth's business empire worth 25,000 crore. After he meets Charuseela at his friend Apparao's birthday party, he enrolls in a university course on rural development. Charuseela wants to use technology for the benefit of Devarakota, a remote village in Uttarandhra from which she hails. A friendship blossoms between them, and they gradually become attracted to each other. The natural resources of Devarakota are being exploited by Sashi, the brother of Central minister Venkata Ratnam, whose tyranny has made many locals migrate to the city to seek a better life. Nevertheless, the village head Narayana Rao hopes that the standard of living will soon improve along with the general condition of the village. Meanwhile, Ratnam's son Radha uses blackmail to threaten harm to Ravikanth's family if he does not back out of a prestigious highway contract. Ravikanth's nephew Karthik, who hopes to succeed Ravikanth in the business empire, leaks to Radha details about an upcoming bid for the contract, which comes to the notice of Harsha. After subtly warning Ratnam at his residence in Delhi, Harsha secretly makes a lower bid on behalf of his father's company and wins the contract.
When Charuseela learns that Harsha is Ravikanth's son, she starts avoiding him. When he asks the reason, she says that Ravikanth is a native of Devarakota who left for Hyderabad to earn wealth unlike her father Narayana Rao, who stayed back and strived for improving the conditions at their village. After asking his father for a long holiday before joining his business, Harsha travels to Devarakota without his father's knowledge. In Devarakota he meets Rao and introduces himself as a student pursuing a course in rural development who has come to study the village. After learning more about Devarakota and Sashi's tyranny, Harsha announces that he will adopt the village and develop it. While he works to improve conditions in the village, Ratnam asks Sashi also to develop the village, partly to win in the upcoming elections, but he remains silent regarding his intention to gain credit for doing so. At the same time, Harsha learns from Rao that, as a young man, Ravikanth wishing, as Harsha does now, to see the village developed, had established a dairy farm for the local welfare. After the farm was set up, Ratnam and Sashi set it on fire, causing many deaths and Ravikanth was blamed for the fire, Insulted, and arrested. He walked out of the village, moved to the city, and went on to acquire much wealth.
Charuseela returns to Devarakota and assumes that Harsha is trying to impress her family with the intention of marrying her. Initially livid, Charuseela is impressed when Harsha succeeds in persuading her uncle's family not to migrate to the city to live with their employed son and instead makes their son agree to visit them every possible weekend. Later, Harsha and Charuseela learn that Ratnam is going to take over all the agricultural land around the village for political gain since the value of the land will appreciate following the official declaration of a new coastal industrial corridor. Harsha confronts them and warns them not to interfere in his work of developing the village. Harsha later visits a water bottling unit which not only produces alcoholic beverages but also draws from the village's source of drinking water. He tries to close it, but is attacked by Sashi's henchmen and is hospitalised. Ravikanth, who has been informed of Harsha's adoption of Devarakota, manages to bring Harsha back to Hyderabad, where he joins the office after he recovers. Ravikanth later confronts a visibly upset Harsha and decides to send him back to Devarakota, earning Harsha's love for which he has long yearned. Harsha hands over the reigns of the business empire to Karthik and leaves. At Devarakota, Harsha kills Ratnam and Sashi at the factory and construes it as an accident due to an inadvertent short circuit, similar to what Sashi had done before Ravikanth's arrest years before. The film ends with Ravikanth and his family visiting Rao's house on Sankranthi, where Harsha, now Charuseela's husband, receives them warmly.
Cast
Mahesh Babu as Harsha Vardhan Shruti Haasan as Charuseela Jagapathi Babu as Ravikanth Rajendra Prasad as Narayana Rao Anand as Meghana's father Rahul Ravindran as Karthik Ali as Rajaratnam Sivaji Raja as Suryam Subbaraju as Ravikanth's brother Mukesh Rishi as Venkata Ratnam Sampath Raj as Sashi Vennela Kishore as Apparao Harish Uthaman as Radha Sravan Raghavendra as Radha's sidekick Surya as Madhav Rao, Ravikanth's accountant Kadambari Kiran as villager Sriram Edida as Narayana Rao's brother Ravi Varma as Charuseela's cousin Thagubothu Ramesh A. R. C. Babu Pruthvi Tulasi as Narayana Rao's sister-in-law Sukanya as Harsha Vardhan's mother Sithara as Charuseela's mother Shanoor Sana as Karthik's mother Surekha Vani as Sumathi Rajitha as Apparao's mother Poorna in a cameo appearance in the song "Rama Rama" Angana Roy as Harsha's cousin Nikkita Anil Kumar as Harsha's sister Sanam Shetty as Meghana Ravi Prakash as Dr. Ganesh Tejaswi Madivada as Venkata Ratnam's daughter Chatrapathi Sekhar as TV Reporter Appaji Ambarisha Darbha as head of board of directors Rajashree as Venkata Ratnam's wife Ramajogayya Sastry in a cameo appearance in the song "Rama Rama"
Production
Development UTV Motion Pictures announced in October 2013 that they would produce a film starring Mahesh Babu and directed by Koratala Siva, marking their maiden Telugu production with Mahesh's sister Manjula Ghattamaneni and presenting the film under the banner Indira Productions. A possible delay was expected as Mahesh had earlier agreed to work on a film directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K., produced by Ashwini Dutt, after completing Aagadu (2014). In late March 2014, G. Dhananjayan of UTV Motion Pictures announced that the film's production would commence in July 2014. UTV Motion Pictures backed out of the film citing differences with Siva, and the overseas distribution company Mythri Movie Makers agreed to become the major investor in the film.
Mahesh opted to co-produce the film under the banner G. Mahesh Babu Entertainment Pvt. Ltd to control the film's budget, accepting a share in the profits in lieu of his remuneration. Devi Sri Prasad was signed to compose the film's music. R. Madhi, the film's cinematographer, charged 1.4 crore as his remuneration. The official launch ceremony was held on 11 August 2014 at Ramanaidu Studios in Hyderabad. Mahesh participated in the story discussions with Siva and shared his ideas for improving the script. Srimanthudu was confirmed as the film's title on 29 May 2015, after registering it in December 2014.
Casting
Mahesh played the role of a billionaire's son in the film. For his character's appearance, he chose a casual look replete with cardigans, jackets and scarves. He sported various hair styles, including a layered look, a messy hair-do, and a conservative cut, for various episodes in the film. Shruti Haasan was selected as the heroine of the film; the role was supposed to be her first on-screen appearance with Mahesh though she had appeared in an item number in Aagadu after signing this film. She charged a remuneration of 1.25 crore, which was the highest she had received in her career until then. Haasan said that she would play a "strong, independent, intelligent" and simple girl in the film, adding that the romance between the lead pair would be a "very calm, relaxed and classy" one. Siva chose the name Charuseela for the female lead character after going through the lyrics during the recording of the song of the same name.
Impressed with his work in Legend (2014), Siva chose Jagapati Babu to play the role of Harsha's father in the film. After considering Nadhiya and Gracy Singh for the role of Mahesh's mother, Sukanya was selected in January 2015. Rajendra Prasad, Sampath Raj, Brahmanandam and Tulasi were announced for the supporting roles. While Sampath Raj played the antagonist, Brahmanandam's inclusion was never confirmed. Harish Uthaman was signed to play one of the antagonists in the film. Uthaman told Indo-Asian News Service that a few scenes required numerous takes due to his difficulties with the language and called Mahesh considerate to have helped him.
Rahul Ravindran made a small yet important cameo appearance. After considering actresses proficient in classical dance for performing a peppy dance number set in a rural backdrop, Poorna was selected as she was a trained Kathak dancer. After auditioning seventy actresses, Angana Roy was selected to play an "important part" in the film, marking her debut in Telugu cinema. Sanam Shetty was signed after one of the unit members of her unreleased Telugu debut Intinta Annamayya convinced the film-makers to consider her. Malayali actress Nikkita Anil Kumar played the role of Mahesh's sister in the film, and Vaishnav, a teenager who played the role of her cousin, helped the non-Telugu actors with their lines. Tejaswi Madivada, who earlier worked with Mahesh in Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (2013), was signed to play a politician's daughter.
Filming