Athadu () is a 2005 Indian Telugu language-language action thriller film, written and directed by Trivikram Srinivas and produced by Jayabheri Arts. The film stars Mahesh Babu as a hitman hired to stage the assassination of a politician, only to be framed for the actual murder, forcing him to assume a new identity while evading the law. The supporting cast includes Trisha, Sonu Sood, Prakash Raj, Nassar, Sunil, Sayaji Shinde, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Brahmanandam. The music was composed by Mani Sharma, while K. V. Guhan handled the cinematography.
Athadu was released on 10 August 2005 and received critical acclaim from critics and audiences and emerged as one of the highest-grossing Telugu films of the year collecting a distributor's share of approximately in its total run.
Plot
Politician Siva Reddy, leader of the opposition, intends to win the upcoming election by staging a failed assassination attempt on him, which would garner him sympathy votes. To accomplish this, Siva Reddy, his deputy Baaji Reddy and their aide Farooq, hire Nandu, a contract killer, along with his partner Malli. On the day of the staged attack, Nandu's plan goes awry when Siva Reddy is actually shot dead. Attempting escape, Nadu sees Malli die in a car accident, and manages to evade the police by jumping onto a moving train.
On the train, Nandu meets Parthasaradhi "Pardhu", who is returning to his hometown, Basarlapudi, after running away as a child two decades earlier. While the train halts at a station, the police searching for Nandu arrive. The sub-inspector of the search party spots Nandu and fires at him, but hits Pardhu instead. Nandu uses the distraction to escape and goes to Basarlapudi. However, Pardhu's unsuspecting family mistakes Nandu for their long-lost relative and welcomes him with open arms. Over time, he bonds with them and falls in love with Poori, Pardhu's cousin. Nandu helps the family resolve several issues, including protecting their farmland, aiding a struggling family affected by Pardhu's past actions, and withdrawing money from his own bank account to fund Poori's sister's wedding. He confides his real identity to Pardhu's childhood friend Ramana.
Meanwhile, CBI officer Anjaneya Prasad is assigned to investigate Siva Reddy's assassination. Noting inconsistencies in the evidence, he goes to Basarlapudi but fails to uncover Nandu's identity. All evidence points toward the deceased Malli, leading Prasad to consult Sadhu, Nandu and Malli's former mentor in prison. After surreptitiously confirming Nandu's identity and the location of the payment for the job, Prasad discovers a withdrawal from Nandu's account, calls the household, and tricks Nandu into revealing himself, causing him to flee. Arriving at the house, Prasad informs Pardhu's family of his real fate and departs. The revelation leaves them devastated, but Ramana defends Nandu, highlighting his contributions to the family, saying he didn't take credit for or make anyone know of his actions.
Nandu returns admist the outrage, and admits the lie, but says he never intended to deceive the family. Pardhu's grandfather, Satyanarayana Murthy, takes him to his study, and privately acknowledges Nandu as his grandson, noting that he didn't need to do what he did, but did it out of love anyway. He hands Nandu a shotgun, once owned by Pardhu's father, which had misfired and killed him due to an obstructed barrel, and encourages him to uncover the truth and clear his name. Unbeknownst to anyone, the gun was obstructed again with one of the marbles that the kids were playing with.
Nandu contacts Baaji Reddy, and blackmails him with a fake recording of the original conversation into confessing. Baaji Reddy reveals that Malli is alive and was bribed to assassinate Siva Reddy and frame Nandu so that Baaji Reddy could secure the chief minister position. Nandu secretly records this confession. Nandu tracks Malli to a church, where they are ambushed by Baaji Reddy's corrupt officers. Nandu eliminates the attackers and confronts Malli, who takes Nandu's shotgun and aims at him. However, when he fires, the obstructed barrel causes the gun to backfire, killing him. Prasad arrives, and Nandu hands over the recording. Prasad confronts Baaji Reddy, who arrogantly dismisses the evidence as inadmissible in court. However, Prasad points out that Siva Reddy's vengeful son would not hesitate to kill him once the truth emerged. With no escape, Baaji Reddy commits suicide.
Later, Prasad finds Nandu performing Pardhu's last rites. Addressing him as Pardhu, he reveals that he has officially cleared his name and allows him to go free. Nandu, having fully embraced his new identity, returns to Basarlapudi to live happily with his newfound family.
Cast
-
Mahesh Babu as Nanda Gopal "Nandu", an assassin who takes up the identity of Pardhu
-
Trisha as Poori, Pardhu's cousin and Nandu's love interest (voice dubbed by Savitha Reddy)
-
Prakash Raj as Anjaneya Prasad IPS, designated to CBI Officer, takes up the case of Siva Reddy assassination.
-
Sonu Sood as Malli, Nandu's partner (voice dubbed by P. Ravi Shankar)
-
Riyaz Khan as Khalid Bhai
-
Johnny Tri Nguyen as Lee Harry Kong
-
Sayaji Shinde as Siva Reddy, opposition party leader and Pratap Reddy's father
-
Kota Srinivasa Rao as Baaji Reddy, Siva Reddy's close aide
-
Rahul Dev as Sadhu, a local don and Nandu's mentor
-
Nassar as Satyanarayana Murthy, Pardhu's grandfather (voice dubbed by S.P.Balasubrahmanyam)
-
Sunil as Ramana, Pardhu's friend
-
Rajiv Kanakala as Parthasaradhi "Pardhu"
-
Ajay as Pratap Reddy, Siva Reddy's son
-
Giri Babu as Poori's father
-
Dharmavarapu Subramanyam as Poori's uncle
-
Brahmanandam as Krishna Murthy, Poori's uncle
-
Sudha as Poori's mother
-
Sruthi as Poori's 1st aunt
-
Hema as Krishna Murthy's wife/Poori's 2nd aunt
-
Charan Raj as Police Officer
-
Tanikella Bharani as Naidu
-
Brahmaji as Nagasamudram Bujji, Naidu's brother-in-law
-
Posani Krishna Murali as Farooq, Siva Reddy's aide
-
Ravi Prakash as Circle Inspector Ravi, Anjaneya Prasad's assistant
-
Harsha Vardhan as a car agency owner
-
Vajja Venkata Giridhar as Giri, Pardhu's friend
-
Harika as Lalitha, Poori's sister
-
Prabhu as Sub Inspector Prabhu
-
M. S. Narayana as Tea Shop's customer
-
Ananth Babu as Doctor
-
Jaya Prakash Reddy as Lalitha's future father in law
-
Gundu Sudarshan as a corrupt MRO
-
Rallapalli as Datthu, Manager of Thanuku Manjeera Bank
-
Shanoor Sana
-
Mounica
-
K. Vishwanath as CBI Officer K. S. Patanjali IPS (special appearance)
Production
Development
In an interview with the media about his film
Julayi (2012), Trivikram shared his views on this film, stating :
Casting
Initially, Trivikram Srinivas wanted to do this film with
Pawan Kalyan and narrated the script. But he did not show much interest in signing the film and even slept during the narration.
listened to the script of this film in 2002 but Trvikram and the film's producers had to wait for him till he completed the shooting schedules of S. J. Surya's science fiction film
Naani and
Gunasekhar's family drama
Arjun as they were his existing commitments then. The shooting started a month later after the completion of
Arjun. For his characterization and the dialogues uttered by the character he played, Mahesh had to adjust to Trivikram's style of dialogues, which took ten days.
Trisha Krishnan was selected for the leading female role. In an interview with the media on 29 June 2005 at the event of audio release stated that she would be seen in a role with shades of comedy though she added that her role was a limited one.
Murali Mohan later revealed that he wanted his friend and former Telugu actor Sobhan Babu to play the role of Satya Narayana Murthy, which would have marked his comeback film, who was then busy with a highly profitable real estate career. For the same, Murali Mohan even issued and sent a blank cheque to Sobhan Babu's residence at Chennai as the remuneration. But Sobhan Babu refused to do that role and rejected the offer politely. Later, Nassar portrayed that role with S. P. Balasubrahmanyam dubbing for him in frail voice and his performance was appreciated by critics.
Filming
For the film's shoot, 160 digital still cameras were imported from London, to shoot freeze-frames in action sequences. Not more than ten shots were shot per day and four to five complicated action sequences were shot under the supervision of
Peter Hein and the climax sequence was shot indoors, which took enormous time to complete thus making the principal photography end after a span of two years.
A big set was constructed at Ramanaidu Studios in
Nanakramguda at Hyderabad where most of the film's family scenes were shot.
On 7 August 2004, a scene featuring Mahesh and Sunil was shot on the bridge of the lake at
ICRISAT campus in Hyderabad.
Soundtrack
Mani Sharma composed the music for this film marking his first collaboration with Trivikram Srinivas and eighth collaboration with
Mahesh Babu. This album consists of six melodies while Sirivennela Sitaramasastri and Viswa penned the lyrics.
The film's soundtrack was released by Mahesh Babu's father and Telugu actor Krishna on 29 June 2005 at the house set of the film constructed at Nanakramguda through Maruthi Music label.
The film's soundtrack and score by Mani Sharma received critical acclaim. Upon the film's release, Sharma's background score and the title song were well received. However, parts of the title song were noted to be influenced by Christina Aguilera's "Fighter".
Release
Domestic
The film released in 79 centers in
Nizam Circuit in Andhra Pradesh and was distributed by Maruthi Movies in which 3 centers screened the film for only 2 days. The film released in 24 centers across
Visakhapatnam and was distributed by Sri Venkateswara Films. Sri Bharathi Pictures released the film in
Krishna district in 18 centers.
The film was released simultaneously on three screens in
Chennai, the first Telugu film to do so.
[ Chennai Box-Office (Aug 12–15) . Sify.com (16 August 2005). Retrieved on 2015-07-23.]
Overseas
The film was released with 6 prints in United States and was distributed by Vishnu Mudda and Soma Kancherla of Crown DVD distribution company. Because of the demand, another print was imported from India for screening.
The film's first screening in the US happened at Cine Plaza 13 at North Bergen on the night of 11 August 2005.
At
Connecticut, a special screening was conducted on 19 August 2005. Initially one show was planned but because of the demand another show was screened. There at the theater, a turn out of 442 people was observed which included standing audience for 434 seats and about 60 could not be accommodated.
Apart from USA, the film released in selected screens in United Kingdom,
Singapore, Germany and Australia.
Home media
The DVD of the movie was released by
Aditya Music under its Aditya Video Brand and won the best DVD award for its quality and is considered to be one of the best selling DVDs in
Telugu cinema. After 7 years,
Star Maa renewed the contract by paying an amount of 3.5 crores which was a record price for a 2005 Telugu film.
Re-release
Athadu was remastered in 4K with
Dolby Atmos mixing and re-released in theaters on 9 August 2025 coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the film and the 50th birthday celebrations of Babu.
Dubbed version
The film was dubbed in
Hindi as
Cheetah: The Power of One.
Reception
Critical reception
The film received praise for its plot, slick screenplay, creative action sequences, the amalgamation of humor, emotional weightage, suspense music, dialogues, cinematography and the central performance of Mahesh Babu.
Sify stated, "The highlight of the film is Mahesh Babu who looks cool, confident and competent as a hit man with his expressive body language and mannerisms. Athadu just about makes it as a slickly packaged entertainer but only for want of a better alternative."
Box office
The film netted 10
lakh from three screens in Chennai in its opening weekend debuting at second position pushing Shankar's
Anniyan down to the third place.
It collected approximately in its total run.
The film had a 50 days run in 205 centers
[ Athadu 50 days centres . Idlebrain.com. Retrieved on 23 July 2015.] and a 100-day run in 38 centres.
[ Nonstopcinema Box Office – Athadu 100 days centers : Telugu movies, tollywood, cinema . Nonstopcinema.com. Retrieved on 23 July 2015.] The film had a 175-day run in Sudarshan 35 mm, Hyderabad, grossing 1.40 crore from the theatre.
[ Box-Office Records And Collections – Maheshbabu's 75-Day Centres List. CineGoer.com. Retrieved on 23 July 2015.]
Accolades
|
|
| Best Director – Telugu | Trivikram Srinivas | |
| Best Actor – Telugu | Mahesh Babu | |
| Best Actress – Telugu | Trisha | |
| Best Comedian – Telugu | Brahmanandam | |
| Best Music Director – Telugu | Mani Sharma | |
| Best Male Playback Singer – Telugu | Karthik (for "Pilichina Raanantaava") | |
| Best Female Playback Singer – Telugu | Shreya Ghoshal (for "Pillagali Allari") | |
| Kavita Krishnamurti (for "Pilichina Raanantaava") | |
|
| Best Dialogue Writer | Trivikram Srinivas | |
| Best Special Effects | C. H. Srinivas (Prasad EFX) | |
|
Notes
External links
