Buddhivantha

Buddhivantha(transl.Genius) is a 2008 IndianKannada-language film directed by Ramnath Rigvedhi. starringUpendrain the lead role, whilePooja Gandhi,Brinda Parekh,Saloni Aswani, Natanya Singh, andSuman Ranganathanplay the female leads. The film is a remake of the 2007TamilfilmNaan Avanillai, which was itself was a remake of 1974 Tamil movieNaan Avanillaiwhich in turn was based on the 1962 Marathi playTo Mee Navhech(transl.I Am Not Him) written byPralhad K. Atre.The music was composed byVijay Antony.
The film was released on 26 September 2008. It was supposed to be released on Upendra's birthday, 18 September 2008, but because of the delay in censor certification, the date was postponed to 26 September 2008.It became the highest grossing Kannada film of 2008 and turned out to be a much bigger hit than the originalNaan Avanillai. It went on to complete over a 100-day theatrical run in the main centers ofKarnataka.
The story begins with Panchamrutha (Upendra) standing in the court facing charges of cheating four beautiful women and the public prosecutor (Siddaraj Kalyankar) heaping more and more charges against him. Panchamrutha, who speaks in typical Mangalorean Kannada, denies having any links with these beautiful women and also argues his case to prove that he is innocent. Much to the dismay of the girls, police department, and PP, the judgement goes in favor of Panchamrutha and the judge (Lakshmi), who is the mother of Pooja (Pooja Gandhi), and sets him free.
Panchamrutha again ends up in the court due to cheating the beautiful daughter of the judge herself. The lawmakers are bent upon getting him convicted and they rope in his brother, but then, the smart man that he is, Panchamrutha gives his logic and again he emerges successful. The girls – Pooja, Rekha (Brinda Parekh), Shanthi (Saloni Aswani), Rani (Natanya Singh), and Monika (Suman Ranganathan) – are helpless, but then the time for truth comes. Apparently, Panchamrutha is the man who donned the roles of Zakir Hussain, Samarasimha Reddy, Ashok Mittal, Shyamprasad, and Rajneesh. All this he does with only one mission – to teach these arrogant and haughty women a lesson and cut them down to size. There is a very strong flashback connected to it that leads to the death of his sister-in-law, and that is when the peace-loving Panchamrutha became a skilled conman for greedy women. His flashback leads him to cheat girls, but he would not cheat any. Instead, he would be taught the reality of four girls except Pooja.
Zakir Hussain (Upendra) gets together with Pooja, and the pair walks away happily, leaving the audience to assume that they live happily ever after.
The soundtrack ofBuddhivanthareceived an amazing response upon its audio release and turned out to be one of the best selling albums of the year. The official soundtrack contains seven songs composed byVijay Antonywith the lyrics primarily penned by Kaviraj and Upendra. The audio of the film was released on 18 June 2008, three months before the release of the film.The album was released by Times Music. Except "Chitranna" which was reused from Vijay Antony's own composition "Dailomo" fromDishyum, he retained other tunes from the original Tamil film.
Now running.com gave the film a 3 out of 5 and wrote, "Upendra sparkles as an actor. Pooja Gandhi's performance is good, but it is Suman Ranganathan who makes a big impact. Veteran actors Lakshmi, Dharma, Sridhar, and Hema Chowdhary are all impressive in their respective roles."
The film was the highest grossingKannada filmof 2008,by collecting more than₹150 million at the box office.It completed 100 days screening in more than 25 centres all over Karnataka.
The Telugu version of the film was released asBudhimanthuduinAndhra Pradesh. It completed 50 days of run and did decent business at the box office across Andhra Pradesh.
Buddhivantha 2 was announced in 2019.