Chatrapathi (2005 film)

Chatrapathi is a 2005 Indian Telugu-language action film co-written and directed by S. S. Rajamouli and produced by B. V. S. N. Prasad. The film stars Prabhas and Shriya Saran while Shafi, Bhanupriya, and Pradeep Rawat play supporting roles. Aarthi Agarwal and Mumaith Khan made a guest appearance. 

Chatrapathi was released on 29 September 2005, and it emerged as a blockbuster, collecting an estimated distributors' share of 32 crore ($5 million) against a budget of 12.5 crore ($2.8 million). The film won two Nandi Awards - Best Supporting Actress for Bhanupriya and Best Music Director for M. M. Keeravani. The film was remade in Bengali as Refugee (2006), in Bengali Bangladesh as Kothor (2007), in Kannada with the same name in 2013, and in Hindi with the same name in 2023.

Plot
Parvati lives on the coast of Sri Lanka, who adopts Sivaji as her son and shows equal affection to her biological son Ashok, but Ashok becomes jealous of Sivaji. One day, the villagers are forced to evacuate the coast, where a fire accident occurs and Ashok lies that Sivaji died in the fire accident thus separating him from his family. Sivaji ends up in a different boat and lands in Vizag port, which is dominated by Baji Rao who uses refugee labor for his gain. 

Years later, Sivaji grows up to be an aggressive guy and still searches for Parvati. One day, Sivaji reacts violently in defense of the other refugees and kills Baji Rao's right-hand man Katraju after he killed a child named Suri. Enraged, Baji Rao attacks the slum and kills Sivaji's friend when he tried to save other children in the port. Sivaji revolts against Baji Rao and hacks him to death, where people starts referring to him as "Chatrapathi". 

Baji Rao's brother Ras Bihari arrives in Vizag and learns about his brother's death and begins to hunt Sivaji. Ashok also lands in the same place, where he realizes that Sivaji is his brother and joins hands with Ras Bihari. Despite this, Sivaji manages to reunite with Parvati and also kills Ras Bihari, thus saving the port from any danger. Ashok also realize his mistake and apologize to Sivaji and Parvati, where they reunite and live happily.

Cast

 Prabhas as Sivaji / Chatrapathi
 Manoj Nandam as Young Sivaji 
 Shriya Saran as Neelu
 Bhanupriya as Parvati, Sivaji's step-mother and Ashok's mother
 Shafi as Ashok/Akash, Sivaji's step-brother
 Teja Sajja as Young Ashok
 Seiloosh Bhaswanth as Suryudu
 Pradeep Rawat as Ras Bihari
 Narendra Jha as Baji Rao 
 Kota Srinivasa Rao as Appala Nayudu
 Ajay as Ajay, Sivaji's friend
 Kamal Kamaraju as Sivaji's friend
 Supreeth as Katraju, Baji Rao's right-hand man
 Venu Madhav as Mahesh Nanda
 Jaya Prakash Reddy as Commissioner
 Surya as Syed Jaffar Khan
 Subbaraya Sharma as Commissioner's assistant
 Srinivasa Reddy as Appala Nayudu's assistant
 L. B. Sriram as Sattana, Sivaji's neighbor and a tea stall owner
 Jeeva as boat Agent
 Stunt Silva as Satti, Baji Rao's henchman
 Karate Kalyani as Fisherwoman
 Sekhar as Bhadram, Sivaji's best friend
 SS Kanchi as Clerk in Commissioner's Office
 Raghava as Dr. Vihari
 Y. Vijaya
 Anita Chowdary
 Mumaith Khan special appearance in the item song "Mannela Tintivira"
 Aarthi Agarwal special appearance in the song "Summa Masuriyaaa"

Themes
In an interview with Idlebrain.com, Rajamouli described Chatrapathi as a "mother sentiment film", which also deals with the exploitation of immigrants who come to India from the places and live without any official identity. When questioned about similarities to the American film Scarface, he said that his father V. Vijayendra Prasad, who wrote Chatrapathi, watched Scarface and got inspired by the point of immigrants' problems, but there were no scenic resemblances between the two films.

Soundtrack

The film has seven songs composed by M. M. Keeravani. The track Gundusoodi has been reused from the song Kambangaadu from the Tamil movie Vaaname Ellai (1992) also composed by M. M. Keeravani. The song Agni Skalana was inspired from the Main Theme of the video game Myst IV: Revelation (2004) composed by Jack Wall.

Reception

Critical reception 
A reviewer from The Hindu felt that though the storyline was routine, its screenplay and direction did the trick for the film. Sify rated the film 2/5 and wrote, "a swell cast with a young action hero and add a dash of digital wizardry to the stunts and cook up an unimaginative script as an aftermath and serve it piping hot! Chatrapati works to a certain extent thanks to the tall handsome hunk Prabhas." Jeevi of Idlebrain.com observed the film's similarities with Scarface and Deewaar but opined that Chatrapati stands on its own.

Box office
The film had a 100-day run in 54 venues.

Awards and nominations

Dubbed versions and remakes
The film was dubbed and released in Tamil as Chandramouli (2013), in Malayalam as Chatrapathi (2011), and in Hindi as Hukumat Ki Jung (2009).

The film was remade in Bengali as Refugee (2006) starring Prosenjit and Rambha, in Bengali Bangladesh as Kothor (2007), with Alexander Bo and Moumita, and in Kannada with the same name in 2013, with Siddhanth and Priyadarshini.  It was remade in Hindi with the same name starring Bellamkonda Sreenivas making his debut in Hindi cinema.

Notes

References

External links
 

2005 films
2000s Telugu-language films
2005 action drama films
Films scored by M. M. Keeravani
Telugu films remade in other languages
Films directed by S. S. Rajamouli
Indian action drama films
Films about Indian slavery
Films about social issues in India
Films shot in Visakhapatnam