Arundhati (2009 film)
Arundhati is a 2009 Indian Telugu-language horror fantasy film directed by Kodi Ramakrishna, and produced by Shyam Prasad Reddy under his banner Mallemala Entertainments. The film stars Anushka Shetty in the titular role with Sonu Sood, Deepak, Sayaji Shinde, Manorama, and Kaikala Satyanarayana. The music is composed by Koti with cinematography by K. K. Senthil Kumar and editing by Marthand K. Venkatesh. Released on 16 January 2009, the film was a major commercial success and went onto become one of the highest-grossing Telugu film of the year. The film received several accolades, including 10 Nandi  Awards, and two Filmfare Awards South. The film is remade in Bengali with the same name in 2014. Plot. Arundhati is a beautiful princess and the great-great-granddaughter of the Raja of Gadwal, the head of a princely state. Arrangements are being made for her wedding. She is the first female to be born since her great-grandmother, hence she is loved and revered by her family. She visits Gadwal to meet her grandfather, the head of the family. That night, Arundhati receives a misleading phone call in her fiancé Rahul's voice asking her to come to the  fort of Gadwal, where she faces a horrible revelation. Learning the story from an aged servant maid Chandramma, Arundhati discovers that she is a doppelgänger of her great-grandmother Arundhati, fondly called Jejamma. Jejamma is an expert in painting, dance, and martial arts. Her elder sister is married to her cross-cousin Pasupathi, a womanizer who rapes the women he likes and kills those who object. While Jejamma was still a young girl, he rapes and kills her blind dance teacher while a horrified Jejamma watches through a peephole. Jejamma furiously demands that he be killed, but the king tells  her that this would ruin her sister's life. Hearing this, Jejamma's sister commits suicide to save her family's reputation. The people of Gadwal ferociously thrash and expel Pasupathi from the kingdom.Though Gadwal celebrates his end, he is saved by Aghoris (saints who practice the dark arts). Pasupathi masters the Tantric arts and returns to Gadwal many years later to exact his revenge. He unleashes carnage as he uses his powers to torture innocent people, something that the Aghoris are forbidden to do. Meanwhile, Jejamma has grown up to be a gorgeous woman and is set to  be married. Pasupathi arrives on Jejamma's wedding day and lusts her magnificent beauty. Before killing her, he wants to rape her. He uses his spells to kill people around and takes her clothes off. Jejamma lures him away into a room and performs a special dance imbued with martial arts to lull Pasupathi. She then cuts off his tongue (thus ending the incantations) and pins his hands, befells a chandelier to fall on his body. She spares him from being killed to prevent him from becoming a 'pretatma' (a demonic poltergeist). Pasupathi is buried alive in a tomb, and  powerful 'yantras' (defensive spells) are put on it to prevent him from coming out. Though Pasupathi's corpse is buried, he uses his powers from his tomb to destroy peoples' lives by causing famine and diseases in Gadwal. Jejamma visits many temples and sages for the solution, but of no avail. She finally meets a few Aghoris in the forest, who tell her that she can only destroy Pasupathi's vengeful spirit if she gives up her life.She bids adieu and tells everyone that the first girl who will be born in their family will be her and they  ought to respect the child as they respect her. She then returns to the Aghoris, asking for a painful death that magnifies her revenge on Pasupathi. Thus the aghoris kill her by breaking coconuts on her head. Later, her body is burned at the stake and skeletonized for obtaining skull remains, ashes, and other accessories which are then fashioned into a dagger, the one weapon that could destroy Pasupathi forever. A distant relative of Arundathi breaks the grave of Pasupath in a hope of getting his dead wife back, which releases Pasupathi's spirit. Anwar, a fakir who treats patients  through sorcery, asks her to fight Pasupathi. Arundhati learns that her great-grandmother had prepared a weapon with her own bones and had kept it with the sages. During their attempts to procure the weapon, their family is threatened, and Chandramma is killed by Pasupathi's spirit. Later, the spirit seems to have killed Anwar by throwing him off a cliff. Arundhati, believing that Anwar is dead, returns to the fort to surrender herself to Pasupathi to prevent the death of her family members. Pasupathi takes his human form to rape and kill her as he desired. However, Anwar, who  had survived the fall, hands the weapon to the maiden after many unsuccessful trials. The weapon has to be soaked in Arundhati's blood before it can be used to kill the evil spirit. Before Anwar can tell her this, Pasupathi kills him. As a last resort to save herself, Arundhati stabs herself with the same weapon, but the dagger begins to glow from her blood, indicating Jejamma's presence. The brave maiden kills Pasupathi, and the building burns and explodes. Arundhati walks out of the place as Jejamma. Production. Development. Shyam Prasad Reddy revealed that he got the idea  of "Arundhati" while receiving National Awards for the film "Anji" (2004). Being inspired from films like "Chandramukhi" and "The Exorcist", he made it a female-oriented story "for a bigger appeal so that the entire family could watch it. I added classical dance to it. I wanted to mount the film on a grandeur scale.[sic] I wanted to play the film on 'fear of the evil spirit'. Arundhati is about good fighting evil. Hence I had to make sure that both the characters of Arundhati and Pasupati equally powerful [sic]". Casting. Reddy wanted somebody with a 5'10" (5 feet 10  inches) height and "should look royal because she the queen, she rides on horses and elephants". Gemini Kiran suggested Reddy to choose Anushka for the role. After conducting her photoshoot, Reddy explained the story and Arundhati's characterisation. Reddy wanted Tamil actor Pasupathy to enact the role of an antagonist of the same name but since the character has "a royal side to the character where he has to look princely", he had chosen Sonu Sood for the role after seeing his performance in "Ashok" (2006). For the characterisation of Fakira who helps Anushka's character in the present era , Reddy drew inspiration from the priest character in the 1976 American horror film "The Omen". Reddy considered Naseeruddin Shah, Nana Patekar and Atul Kulkarni for the role; however, none of their dates were available. Sayaji Shinde was finally chosen for the character. Principal photography. Filming took around 250 days, in Hyderabad and other places. The interior of the place is shot at the Annapurna Studios, while the exterior was at Banganapalle fort. Filming also took place at Ramanaidu Studios. Post production. Dubbing. Sowmya Sharma had dubbed for the character of modern-day Arundhati and Shilpa for Jejjama. Dubbing voice for  Sonu Sood was provided by P. Ravishankar. Ravishankar completed the dubbing within 14 days and found it to be "most challenging work" and his voice "has gone sore for 5 times during this process". Visual effects. Rahul Nambiar was appointed as Creative Director and Visual Effects Supervisor by Shyam Prasad Reddy for this feature film. Nambiar felt that showcasing a ghost as the main villain, throughout the film was challenging. With help of some dedicated scenes written, visualization, and visual effects, Nambiar and his team could achieve and what they had planned with Reddy. Nambiar also stated "We created all  the action in computer dolls, animated all of them and added all the film cameras and made it like a film. We saw it as a rough edit and then we shot it. There was a lot of meticulous work. The pre-production itself took about seven months". Music. The music and background music of this film was composed by Koti. The soundtrack was critically acclaimed. Especially the tracks "Jejamma", "Chandamama" and "Bhu Bhu" and in Tamil "Bhoomi Kodhikum" , "Gummiruttil Kudamkizhithu kundril ezhum" , "Enna Viratham Ettrai Neeyamma" were huge hits. The album featured eminent singers like K. S. Chithra, Kailash  Kher, Kalpana Raghavendar and N. C. Karunya. Koti, while speaking said that this film helped him to prove himself and in his career of 30 years this was his personal best. The track "Jejamma" required a majestic and ambient grandeur, so Koti selected Kailash Kher. The track "Bhu Bhu" took many days for Koti to compose and he felt it should be sung by an amazing singer who could aptly give the ferocious feel and hence went with Chithra. Lyrics were written by Veturi for "Bhu Bhu Bhujangam", Anant Sriram for "Chandamama", and C. Narayana Reddy for "Jejamma". This album  features four songs and three instrumentals. Release. The Tamil dubbed version of the film, which was launched by Sri Thenandal Films, was released on 20 March 2009. Though this film was released in 2009, it was registered for 2008 films for Nandi Awards. The film received a total of 10 Nandi awards. Reception. Critical reception. "Rediff" gave it three stars out of five and said, "The main plus points of the film are screenplay (creative director Rahul Nambiar and the Mallemalla Unit), art direction (Ashok), cinematography (Senthil Kumar), editing (Marthand K. Venkatesh), special effects and the performances of Anushka [Images ], Sonu Sood and Sayaji Shinde. On the whole, Arundhati is a watchable film provided you don't have a weak heart and don't get into discussing logic, science, and rationality. Just watch what unfolds on the screen – for that's visual grandeur"." Sify" gave its verdict as "Worth a watch" with four stars noted, "The film has come across with some really mind-blowing graphics and presentation, even the performances were top-notch that helped. While the drums scene is a take from the Chinese movie 'House of Flying Daggers' it was well taken and presented. The shock points  are high and one can say that the film is definitely not for the weak-hearted. There are enough chilling moments to shake the audience off their chair. The film is one of the best made ever in the history of Telugu cinema in terms of technical values so it deserves to be a good hit". "Behindwoods" reviewing the Tamil dubbed version, gave 3 out of 5 stars and stated "Old school horror, new age film making". Box office. The film grossed 700 million at the box office with 30 million from overseas markets. The satellite rights of the movie  were sold to Gemini TV for 70 million. Legacy. "Arundhati"'s success turned Anushka into one of the most sought-after actresses in Telugu and catapulted her into the foray of leading Telugu actresses. Sonu Sood attained stardom with this film and went on to work in several South Indian films as an antagonist. After the release of "Arundhati", people began recognising him as Pasupathi. P. Ravishankar who dubbed for him also became popular and was referred to as 'Bommali or Bommayi Ravi Shankar' by the media thereafter. According to writer Gopimohan, "Arundhati" made audience to "welcome creative content" and  Magadheera started a trend of experimentation with period, socio-fantasy and spiritual themes that was continued in films like "Panchakshari" (2010), "Nagavalli" (2010), "Anaganaga O Dheerudu" (2011), "Mangala" (2011), "Sri Rama Rajyam" (2011) and "Uu Kodathara? Ulikki Padathara?" (2012). Tammareddy Bharadwaja said "Ever since "Arundhati" and "Magadheera" did well at the box office, the rest of the industry started following their footsteps. Also, since there is an irrational craze to make high budget films right now, producers are turning towards mythological films. It is the only genre where you can boast of spending crores for creating the sets and the  look of the film. But what they don't realize is that if these films flop, the blow to the producer will be severe." Films like "Anaganaga O Dheerudu" (2011) and "Shakti" (2011) were commercial failures and "Badrinath" (2012) was an average grosser; all being fantasy films in which the protagonist is a warrior.