# Thammudu

Thammudu (transl. Younger Brother) is a 1999 Indian Telugu-language sports action film written and directed by P. A. Arun Prasad. The films stars Pawan Kalyan, Preeti Jhangiani, and Aditi Govitrikar. Bhupinder Singh, Achyuth, Brahmanandam, Ali, and Kitty play supporting roles. Thammudu was produced by Burugupalli Sivaramakrishna under the Sri Venkateswara Art Films banner. The music is composed by Ramana Gogula with cinematography by Madhu Ambat and editing by Marthand K. Venkatesh. Thammudu was inspired by the 1979 American film Breaking Away.
The film released on 15 July 1999 and went on to become a blockbuster with the film's soundtrack by Ramana Gogula becoming a trendsetter. The film was remade in Tamil as Badri (2001), in Kannada as Yuvaraja (2001) and in Bengali as Champion (2003).

## Plot

Subramanyam aka Subbu aka Subhash is the youngest son of a family. He is a wastrel and gypsy and spends his days roaming around with girls, hanging around with his friends, and constantly failing his exams. Subbu's behaviour always shows hatred and disgust towards his father, Viswanadh, who is a cafe owner. Subbu's elder brother, Chakri, on the other hand is a college level kickboxer and Viswanadh's favorite son. Chakri spends his days rigorously training for the inter college kickboxing championship, but ends up losing to his kickboxing arch rival, Rohit, who is from the elite Model College. While training, he and Rohit end up running into each other and Chakri always is shamed for his poor background as Chakri attends Government College. Jaanu aka Janaki is Subbu's neighbor and secretly in love in Subbu. Subbu is unaware that Jaanu is in love with him. Subbu usually considers Jaanu as a source of money and cars to impress girls and constantly borrows money and cars. Jaanu's father is a garage owner.
One day, Subbu meets Lovely, who is a rich college girl from the elite Model College, and lies that he attends the elite Engineering College and a wealthy man's son. Subbu is actually from the local government college just like his brother Chakri. Lovely falls for his lies and soon begins to express her love to Subbu. Eventually, she learns the truth and breaks up and insults Subbu in front of Viswanadh and Chakri. At the same time, Viswanadh finds out that Subbu has taken large amounts of Jaanu. Fatigued, he banishes Subbu.
Subbu is now homeless and gets support from Jaanu. Jaanu tells Subbu that he should be more responsible of himself and prove himself towards his father. He begins to reform himself and soon starts to understand the love of Jaanu. In the meantime, Chakri is attacked and seriously injured by Rohit, who now happens to be Lovely's new boyfriend and Subbu's enemy, and his friends causing Chakri to be hospitalized. This rules him out of the final match of the inter college kick boxing championship. Deciding to seek revenge for his brother's accident and redeem himself in front of Viswanadh's eyes, Subbu trains and works really hard to prepare for the inter college kickboxing championship. He defeats Rohit in the kickboxing match and wins the final intercollege kickboxing championship, dedicates the trophy to Chakri, redeems himself to Visnwanadh, and finally accepts Jaanu's love.

## Cast

* Pawan Kalyan as Subramanyam / Subhash a.k.a Subbu
* Preeti Jhangiani as Janaki 'Janu'
* Aditi Gowitrikar as Lovely
* Bhupinder Singh as Rohit
* Achyuth as Chakri
* Brahmanandam as Telugu lecturer Avadhanalu
* Ali as Kodandarama Manoharan
* Kitty as Viswanadh
* Chandra Mohan as Kutumba Rao
* Vennira Aadai Moorthy as Lecturer
* Tanikella Bharani as Drunkard
* Mallikarjuna Rao as Malli
* Venu Madhav as Subbu's friend
* Varsha as Shanthi
* Ironleg Sastri as Malli's matchmaker
* Surya as Surya
* Dominic Chung as Chinese boy/Sparring partner
* Raghunatha Reddy

## Production

Thammudu was inspired by the 1979 American film Breaking Away. The 1992 Hindi film Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar was also inspired from the American film.

## Soundtrack

Music composed by Ramana Gogula.

## Reception

Deccan Herald wrote, "While the first half is full of fun-frolic situations, the second half of the movie brims with heart-wringing moments" but criticized the dubbing of film's actresses and called Ramana Gogula's score "Finger-snapping and peppy".

### Box office

Thammudu, released on 15 July 1999, became another sensational success for Pawan Kalyan, who was already popular due to hits like Suswagatham and Tholi Prema. It had a theatrical business of ₹4.5–5.2 crore and collected a distributor share of ₹9.25–9.46 crore, emerging as a blockbuster. Thammudu resulted in a profit of over ₹4 crore for buyers and also became the second-highest-grossing film in the Nizam region after Choodalani Vundi (1998).