# Bejawada (film)

Bejawada or Bezawada is a 2011 Indian Telugu-language action crime film based on the Vijayawada Gang Warfare, directed by Vivek Krishna and produced by Ram Gopal Varma and Renny Johnson. The film stars Naga Chaitanya and Amala Paul. The movie was received negatively at the box office but positively at the television and OTT as it accurately depicted the historical gang war in Vijayawada. Later it was dubbed in Hindi as Hero: The Action Man (2013) and also in Tamil as Vikram Dhadha. It marked Amala Paul’s Telugu debut.

## Plot

Kali Prasad, aka Kali (Prabhu), is the man of the masses in Bejawada. His group has a stronghold on the temple city. Vijay Krishna (Mukul Dev) is the right hand to Kali. Kali's brother Shankar Prasad, aka Shankar (Abhimanyu Singh), does not like the supremacy of Vijay Krishna. Due to this personal grudge, Shankar plays the spoil sport of brutally killing his brother Kali and then spreads the rumor in Bejawada about Vijay Krishna as the man behind this murder. With the help of politician Ramana (Kota Srinivasa Rao), Shankar plans to become a politician but fails due to Vijay Krishna's authority on Student and Labor Unions. Vijay Krishna has two brothers, Jaya Krishna (Ajay) and Siva Krishna (Naga Chaitanya). Shankar assassinates Vijay Krishna for building his own identity. It is time now for cool, daring, and dashing Siva Krishna to enter the scene for completing the revenge saga. His college-mate Geeta (Amala Paul), daughter of top brass policeman Adi Vishnu (Ahuti Prasad), who has in love with Siva, her father doesn't accept their relationship, then Geetha leaves her father and started staying with Siva despite his family's protest. Then, the gang war ensues, and then Shankar kills his second elder brother Jaya Krishna, which eventually provokes Siva to kill Shankar finally film ends with Siva killing Shankar and becomes a new God father to Bejawada.

## Cast

* Naga Chaitanya as Siva Krishna, "Siva"
* Abhimanyu Singh as Shankar Prasad
* Prabhu as Kali Prasad
* Mukul Dev as Vijay Krishna
* Subhalekha Sudhakar as Reddy
* Kota Srinivasa Rao as Ramana
* Ajay as Jaya Krishna
* Ahuti Prasad as Adi Vishnu
* Amala Paul as Geethanjali, "Geetha"
* Brahmanandam as Sketch Gopi
* M. S. Narayana as Veera Venkata Durga Prasad
* Prudhvi Raj
* Shravan
* Bharath Raju
* Satya Prakash
* Ashok Kumar

## Production

Ram Gopal Varma announced that he was to direct a Telugu film titled Bejawada Rowdilu in a press note in September 2010, which would revolve around the rowdy wars of Vijayawada, also known as Bejawada. The title started a controversy from Vijayawada locales who felt that title wrongly defamed their city, so Varma in August 2011 announced that the film would simply be known as Bejawada. The film was officially launched on 12 May 2011 with Ram Gopal Varma's protégé, Vivek Krishna, announced as the director. The team held a photo shoot and filmed for two days in Vijayawada with Preetika Rao, before removing her from the project with the producer citing that she looked older than the lead actor, Naga Chaitanya. She was subsequently replaced by Amala Paul.

## Soundtrack

The audio songs were released in an FM Studio in Hyderabad. Bejawada's audio release function was a rather low key affair. The songs were released in the market on 7 November. Vikram Negi, Bapitutul, Amar Mohile, Pradeep Koneru, Prem have scored the music for Bejawada.
| Track # | Song | Singer(s) | Composition | Lyrics | Length |
| 1 | "Durgamma Krishnamma" | Jojo Nathaniel | Vikram Negi | Rehman | 05:09 |
| 2 | "Adagaku Nannemi" | Javed Ali, Chandreyee Bhattacharya | Bapitutul | Kaluva Sai | 03:52 |
| 3 | "Ninnu Chusina" | Javed Ali, Swetha Pandit | Amar Mohile | Sira Sri | 05:00 |
| 4 | "Konte Choopulu" | Vedala Hemachandra, Geetha Madhuri | Pradeep Koneru | Rehman | 03:38 |
| 5 | "Rammu Ginnu" | Deepthi Chari | Praveen Koneru | Sira Sri | 05:38 |
| 6 | "Aigiri Nandini" | Ravi Shankar | Sri Adi Shankaracharya | | 04:11 |
| 7 | "Beza Beza" | Jojo Nanathiel | Amar Mohile | Sira Sri | 03:04 |
| 8 | "Le Legara" | Srikanth | Prem | Chaitanya Prasad | 04:15 |

## Critical reception

The film received extremely negative reviews, both from critics and audiences. 123telugu rated it 1.75/5, lamenting that the film had "No of heroism in the first half, no villainism in the second half". Greatandhra rated it 1/5 and said that the film had "racha to do with the history". Rediff.com rated it 1.5/5 and stated that "Bezawada is let down by its script". The Times Of India rated it 1/5 and said that "Despite all the expectations riding on it, "Bejawada" joins the long list of disasters from the RGV factory."

## Accolades
### SIIMA Awards

* Nominated – Best Female Debut (Telugu)- Amala Paul