''Dhammu'' () is a 2012 Indian Telugu-language action drama film co-written and directed by Boyapati Srinu. The film stars

N. T. Rama Rao Jr. Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao Jr. (born 20 May 1983), popularly known as NTR Jr, is an Indian actor, producer, and television presenter who primarily works in Telugu cinema. He is one of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinema and has been featur ...

, Trisha,

Karthika Nair Karthika Nair (born 27 June 1992) is a former Indian actress who primarily worked down South in all language films. She made her debut in the 2009 Telugu film ''Josh (2009 Telugu film), Josh'', opposite Naga Chaitanya. She rose to fame starrin ...

, Nassar,

Sampath Raj Sampath Raj (born 25 December 1968) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Tamil and Telugu films, in addition to Kannada and Malayalam films. He is best known for his appearances in director Venkat Prabhu's trilogy, which includ ...

, Rahul Dev,

Kishore Kishore () may refer to: * Kishore (name), an Indian given name and surname * '' Captain Kishore'', a 1940 Bollywood film * '' K for Kishore'', a 2007–2008 Indian television singing contest * '' Kishore Bangla'', Bengali-language juvenile week ...

, Suman,

Brahmanandam Kanneganti Brahmanandam (born 1 February 1956) is an Indian actor and comedian known for his work in Telugu cinema. Recognised as one of India's finest and highest-paid comic actors, he holds the Guinness World Record for the most screen cred ...

, Ali,

Bhanupriya Bhanupriya (born Manga Bhanu; 15 January 1967) is an Indian actress and dancer. In a four decade old career, she has appeared in 155 feature films, predominantly in Telugu cinema, Telugu and Tamil cinema, Tamil, and a few in Malayalam cinema, M ...

Kota Srinivasa Rao Kota Srinivasa Rao (born 10 July 1942) is an Indian character actor known for his work primarily in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He has also starred in a few films in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hindi cinema, Hindi, Kannada cinema, Kannada and Ma ...

and Venu Thottempudi. ''Dhammu'' was released theatrically on 27 April 2012 and received mixed to negative reviews from critics who praised cast performance and action sequences, but criticized its screenwriting, excessive violence, and double-meaning dialogues. Despite being an average grosser at the box office, it was unofficially remade in Bengali (Bangladesh) as '' Rajababu - The Power'' starring Shakib Khan, Apu Biswas and Bobby. The film was dubbed into

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

titled ''Singamagan''.

Plot

Rama Chandra is an

orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew language, Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages ...

who leads a simple life along with his friend. He falls in love with Sathya, who is a rich girl. Sathya imposes a condition that Rama Chandra's family history should be important. At this very moment, Rama Chandra learns that a rich and powerful royal Suryavamsi family seeks to adopt an heir, where he seizes the chance. Rama Chandra goes there and realizes that Suryavamsi family has a violent past and a bitter dispute with another rich and powerful royal Chandravamsi family headed by a Chandravamsi King and also realizes that thousands of people in the area are now dependent on him for their very survival. Rama Chandra also discovers that he is actually the real heir to the family. Despite his hatred towards violence, Rama Chandra tries his best to solve the problems peacefully, but the rival gang does not give him a chance. Vexed with the violence, Rama Chandra nearly kills the Chandravamsi King's eldest son and kills King's youngest son, where he opens the Chandravamsi King's eyes by placing a sword on his middle son. Chandravamsi King realizes that his mistakes and apologizes to Rama Chandra and the family, thus ending the violent nature of the village.

Cast

as Rama Chandra /

Raja Raja (; from , IAST ') is a noble or royal Sanskrit title historically used by some Indian subcontinent, Indian rulers and monarchs and highest-ranking nobles. The title was historically used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. T ...

Vasireddy Vijayadwaja Srisimha * Trisha as Sathya *

as Neelaveni * Nassar as Chandravamsi King *

as Jaanaki *

as Rama Chandra's mother * Venu Thottempudi as Rama Chandra's brother-in-law *

Abhinaya Abhinaya (Sanskrit ''abhi-'' 'towards' + ''nii-'' 'leading/guide') is the art of expression in Indian aesthetics. More accurately it means "leading an audience towards" the experience (') of a sentiment ('). The concept, derived from Bh ...

as Rama Chandra's first elder sister * Hari Teja as Rama Chandra's second elder sister * Chitralekha as Rama Chandra's third elder sister * Suman as Suryavamsi King/Raja Surya Pratap Singh *

as Raja of Veera Durgam Fort * Ahuti Prasad as Neelaveni's father * Ali as Rama Chandra's friend * Rahul Dev as

Police Officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

as Chandravamsi King's elder son *

as Chandravamsi King's second son * Sridhar Rao as Chandravamsi King's third son *

Tanikella Bharani Tanikella Bharani (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, poet and playwright who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has worked as an actor in more than 750 films, including few in Tamil, Kannada and Hindi; while he was al ...

as Head Priest *

Chalapathi Rao Tammareddy Chalapathi Rao (8 May 1944 – 24 December 2022) was an Indian actor and producer known for comedy and villainous roles in Telugu cinema. He acted in different roles in more than 600 films. Personal life and death Rao hailed from B ...

as Krishnam Raju * Subhalekha Sudhakar as Sathya's father * Prabhakar as Chandravamsi King's henchmen * Snigdha as Sathya's friend * Kolla Ashok Kumar as Rama Chandra's servant *

Chatrapathi Sekhar Chandra Sekhar, known professionally as Chatrapathi Sekhar, is an Indian actor who primarily works in Telugu cinema, Telugu films. He is known for his frequent collaborations with S. S. Rajamouli. Career Sekhar is a regular in S. S. Rajamoul ...

Prasad Babu Prasad Babu is an Indian actor who acts predominantly in Telugu language, Telugu films and also TV serials. Filmography Telugu * ''Anthuleni Katha'' (1976) as Thilak * ''Mana Voori Pandavulu'' (1978) * ''Dongala Veta'' (1978) as Anand * ...

Shanoor Sana Shanoor Sana Begum, known mononymously as Sana, is an Indian actress, television personality, and former model who primarily works in Telugu cinema. She has also appeared in a few Kannada cinema, Kannada and Tamil cinema, Tamil films. Known for ...

Kaikeyi Kaikeyi,(Sanskrit: कैकेयी, IAST: Kaikeyī) is a princess of Kekeya and the queen of Kosala in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. Kaikeyi is the third queen and favourite consort of King Dasharatha, who ruled Kosala from its capital, A ...

* Sandhya Janak * Rahul Mahajan (uncredited appearance) * Maryam Zakaria as

item number In Indian cinema, an item number or special song is a musical number inserted into a film that may or may not have any relevance to the plot. The term is commonly used within Indian films ( Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu c ...

Production

''Dhammu'' has music scored by M. M. Keeravani. Shruti Hassan, who was originally signed to play the female lead, walked out citing date issues. Later the producers approached Kajal Aggarwal who also couldn't accommodate bulk dates for the film. The producers finalised Trisha as the first female lead. According to reports, Bhanupriya, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Venu Thottempudi and Subhalekha Sudhakar play supporting roles.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was released on 29 March 2012 at Shilpakala Vedika in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

. M. M. Keeravani's music label, Vel Records, and

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

secured the film's audio rights. The lyrics for all the songs were written by Chandrabose.

Release

The Telugu and Tamil versions released on 27 April 2012. ''Dammu'' released on approximately 2550 screens worldwide which was a record in Tollywood. It released in approx of 140+ theatres in

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

which is considered to be a record by out of state movie.

Critical reception

B.V.S. Prakash of ''

Deccan Chronicle ''Deccan Chronicle'' is an English-language daily newspaper based in Hyderabad, India. Founded in 1938, it was initially launched as a Weekly newspaper, weekly and later converted into a daily. The newspaper's name reflects its origins in the ...

'' wrote "''Dhammu'' (Valour), as one of the Telugu films that made high on action and low on contents". ''

Sify Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology (ICT) company providing telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation integration services, and ...

'' wrote "Boyapati uses the same formula of Tollywood action movies with good dialogues, high voltage fight sequences and wraps ups with interesting twist and NTR's charged up performance". Mahesh K. S. of ''

123Telugu Mallemala Entertainments is an Indian media and entertainment company which produces films and television programs. Its television productions include reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purpo ...

'' gave 3.25 out of 5 stars and wrote "‘Dhammu’ will work well with fans and mass movie lovers. We have seen a highly charged performance from Tarak after a long time and he carries the film completely on his shoulders. Good action sequences, dialogues and sentiment will work well at the Box office. On the flip side, tempo goes down a bit in the second half and care should have been taken here." Radhika Rajamani of ''

Rediff Rediff.com, stylized as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organization. It is headquartered i ...

'' gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Director Boyapati Seenu's new film Dammu has an outdated and clichéd storyline, regressive content, and mindless and excessive violence".

Box office

Domestic

''Dhammu'' earned a total share of ₹8.04 crore on its opening day at the AP+Nizam box office which was an all time record day 1 opening. It earned a share of ₹14.31 in its opening weekend in AP+Nizam. Within 1 week, the film grossed over ₹20.8 crore at the AP+Nizam box office and ₹23.9 in India. In 10 days, it collected a share of ₹27.65 crore at the domestic box office out of which ₹24.1 crore came from AP+Nizam alone. In 2 weeks, the film collected a share of ₹29.95 crore domestically. By the end of its theatrical run, ''Dammu'' collected a total share of ₹29.25 at the AP+Nizam box office and additional ₹3.95 crore from ROI for a total share of ₹33.20 crore in India.

Overseas

Dhammu earned a total share of ₹1.80 crore at the overseas market.

Pre-release revenues

After selling distribution and satellite rights, the film earned pre-release revenue up to .

Home media

The satellite and digital rights were sold to

Zee Telugu Zee Telugu is an Indian Telugu-language general entertainment pay television channel in India. It was launched on 12 September 2004 as '' Alpha TV Telugu''. and was rebranded as ''Zee Telugu'' on 18 May 2005. The channel is owned by Zee Entert ...

and

ZEE5 ZEE5 or Z5 is an Indian subscription video on demand and over-the-top streaming service, owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched in India on 14 February 2018 with content in 12 languages. The ZEE5 mobile app is available on We ...

for , the highest buy-over for any film in 2012. The VCDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs of the film were released through Bhavani Company into the market on 10 August 2012, six days after completing 100 days in theatres.

Awards

Notes

References

External links

* {{Boyapati Srinu 2010s Telugu-language films 2012 films 2012 masala films Telugu films remade in other languages Films scored by M. M. Keeravani Indian action films Films directed by Boyapati Srinu 2012 action films Indian action drama films Indian romantic action films Indian action thriller films Indian romantic thriller films Indian romantic drama films Indian action adventure films Indian adventure drama films Films about royalty Cultural depictions of Indian monarchs Films about orphans Hindu mythological films Fictional portrayals of the Andhra Pradesh Police