Less Known Facts Behind the Making of Idiot Movie
Sometimes, even the failure helps. ‘Bachi’ movie’s failure made Puri Jagannadh go to Bangalore & make acquaintance with Kannada Superstar Raj Kumar’s family. Though his debut turned disaster in Telugu it became a big hit in Kannada and someone from Raj Kumar’s family loved it. The good word spread inside the fam and Puri got a call from them.
He got a chance to direct Kannada Rajukumar’s elder son Shivarajkumar’s ‘Yuvaraja’ while he was already filming ‘ItluSravani Subrahmanyam’ with Ravi Teja in Telugu. Eventually, both the films scored big at Box-office.
Kannada Rajkumar was impressed with Puri’s behaviour, speed & talent. His 50 years of experience in industry made him understand that Puri is no ordinary director. He thought that he’s the right person to launch his 3rd son Puneeth Rajkumar as Hero and proposed the same.
Puri was in full swing and he already had a bound script in his hand. Constable’s son loves Commissioner’s daughter, Hero characterization is the heart of the class & mass story.
Puri had a friend in Vijayawada who starts every convo using his name. He designed the characterization for the lead actor using that dialogue.
With sheer confidence on the story, Puri reached Rajkumar’s home in bangalore. Treating him royally, Rajkumar made him sit in a hall size of a mini auditorium with full crowd. Puri thought there was a function commencing with family members but didn’t that the entire family and workers of Rajkumar are here to listen and give their opinions on the story of this prestigious film that would launch their Puneeth Rajkumar.
With Kannada Rajkumar’s entry and gesture, whole crowd went silent and Puri was shocked and turned nervous to know about this biggest story sitting he’s about to start. He adamantly gave 2 hour narration and crowd was silently hearing to it with minimal whispers within. Rajkumar then hugged Puri, approved and appreciated his work to launch his son Puneeth Rajkumar. He was relieved. He was already prepared to do it with Ravi Teja in Telugu but Puneeth’s project took off early. Ravi Teja supported him by saying that he would even wait for 1 year to do this film with him.
Pacing ‘Appu’ shoot with Puneeth Rajkumar in high speed, Puri is even working to take the Telugu projects on sets too. Post ‘ItluShravani Subrahmanyam’ success, many producers came forward to invest in Puri’s project but Puri decided it to make it on his own. He started ‘Vaishno Academy’ banner to bankroll it.
Back in time when Puri went to Vaishno Devi temple, the priest tried to convince Puri to accept the belief of ‘Wishing’. Puri then promised the priest that he would name his banner on the name of Vaishno Devi though he didn’t have any thoughts of starting a production house. Puri gives share to his partners, politician AyyannaPatrudu has joined him in this project. As per their deal, his wife Ch. Padmavati will be credited as the producer, M.L. Kumar Chowdary will take care of the production on their behalf.
‘Appu’ became a Superhit in Kannada. Puneeth Rajkumar scored big with the debut itself. Happy with the result of the movie, Kannada Rajkumar appreciated Puri and said that he’s like a 4th son to him& he’s very proud of him. Appu 100 days function commenced grandly in bangalore. Superstar Rajinikanth attended the function, it’s the first 100 days event he has attended in Kannada till then. He watched the movie and appreciated Puri for the same.
Puri announced ‘Idiot’ with Ravi Teja & negative comments on the title flowed in. Puri thought it was the right title for the script and it works out as an attention puller too. Initially the caption was ‘O SrinugadiPremakatha’ but Ravi Teja likes his name Chantigaduin ‘Sindhooram’. On his request the character name and the caption changed with the same. Rakshitha, who acted in Appu was roped in for Idiot too. Rakshitha’s mother Mamatha Rao was popular Kannada actress and her father Gouri Shankar was a renowned cinematographer. Prakash Raj, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Kaikala Satyanarayana and other senior actors were roped in to play important roles. Chakri has signed for the Music&Shyam.K.Naidu for DOP. Initiating the shoot on March 24th, 2002, team wrapped up the entire shoot in Hyderabad itself. Ravi Teja -Taskforce fight, Head Fight and other fights were shot in Saradhi Studios. Only 2 songs were shot in Bangkok. Interestingly, that’s when puri started loving the location.
‘Idiot’ released on Chiranjeevi’s birthday and turned out as a blockbuster. Audience immensely loved Ravi Teja’s straightforward & gutsy characterization. He set a benchmark for hero’s characterization, breaking all the stereotypes and Ravi Teja perfectly suited it. Ravi Teja blended in ChantiGadu role very well that made us feel there’s no better option than him to play it. Idiot was a big accelerator for Ravi Teja and Puri’s career in Telugu.
Investing 2.20 Cr, it yielded 10x profit i.e.., 20 Cr at Box-office. Releasing with 45 prints, it reached 100 prints and celebrated 100 days in 36 centres.
Dialogues like ‘Commissionerluvastuuntarupothuuntaru, chantigadu local’, ‘Commissioner kooturlakimogulluraara?’,’Rojueetimeloikkadikochi site kodthananitelusukada, vachinilabadalanitelida?’ got whistles in theatres. Songs like ‘Choopulthoguchiguchichampake’ echoed everywhere.
Idiot characterization turned as a trendsetter and many followed the formula in their stories. Sr. Producer Poorna Chandar Rao tried to remake this film in Hindi ft. Vivek Oberai but it didn’t workout. Simbu remade it as ‘Dham’ in Tamil starring Rakshitha. ‘Priya Amar Priya’ was its Bengali version.
Irrespective of the success and failures, Puri stays confident. Confidence is what pushes the faith towards success and that’s what worked for ‘IDIOT’ too.
Very Interesting:
- He narrated the same story to Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh &Tarun but it worked out with Ravi Teja.
- ‘IDIOT’ negative exposure is just 55 feet.
- Ravi Teja’s suicide scene and dialogue was inspired from Chandra Mohan, Sri Devi’s ‘PadaharellaVayasu’
– PULAGAM CHINNARAYANA
