Dhruva (2016 Film)

''Dhruva'' is a 2016 Indian Telugu-language action thriller film directed by Surender Reddy and produced by Allu Aravind under his banner Geetha Arts. A remake of the Tamil film ''Thani Oruvan'' (2015), it follows Dhruva, an IPS officer who wants to arrest Siddharth Abhimanyu, a wealthy scientist, who uses secret medical and illegal practices for profit. It stars Ram Charan in the title role alongside Aravind Swamy (who reprises his role from the original version), Rakul Preet Singh, and Navdeep in pivotal roles.

The launch and principal photography of the film took place in February 2016; filming took place in Hyderabad and Jammu and Kashmir. The film features music composed by Hiphop Tamizha, the cinematography was handled by P. S. Vinod and editing was done by Navin Nooli, respectively. The film was released worldwide on 9 December 2016, after multiple postponements. It received positive reviews praising the cast performances (particularly Ram Charan and Arvind Swamy), writing, direction, action sequences and cinematography.
A Hindi version of the film was dubbed by Bollywood actors Ajay Devgn and Arbaaz Khan dubbing for Ram Charan and Arvind Swamy respectively.

Plot

In 1980, Chengalarayudu, a dedicated low-level party member, helped his wife deliver their baby in the car of his regional leader.

By 1995, their son Venkanna tops his state exams but witnesses his party leader murder a rebel. Venkanna takes the blame and goes to juvenile prison, securing an MLA seat for his father.

By 2016, Dhruva, a trainee IPS officer, and his friends helped catch a kidnapping gang. Dhruva's girlfriend, Ishika, learns about their secret activities. They witness the murder of a social activist, Ramarao, leading Dhruva to uncover a hidden crime network led by scientist Siddharth Abhimanyu, who is Venkanna. Now an ASP, Dhruva discovers Siddharth's illegal medical operations and confronts him. Siddharth's father, now a Health Minister in the minority government headed by the party leader, who is now the CM of Andhra Pradesh, supports Siddharth's unethical practices. Dhruva receives evidence against Siddharth from Akshara, a scientist killed for opposing Siddharth. Dhruva's friend Gautham is killed retrieving this evidence. Dhruva then manipulates Siddharth into killing his henchman Abbas, gathers proof, and confronts the corrupt CM.

Chengalarayudu fakes a stroke to escape pressure, The ruling party forces Chengalarayudu either to resign within 24 hours or he will be dismissed. Dhruva appeals to the CM that he has evidence and wants to arrest Siddharth and is granted permission to do so. Hence Siddarth kills his father using his goons in an accident and forces the CM to stop actions against him, or he will lie that the CM killed his father for personal vengeance. But the next day, at his father's state funeral, Dhruva arrests him on the CM's orders. When Siddharth is arrested, Siddharth is tricked into confessing, and Dhruva's team brings down his entire crime network. It is also revealed that Chengalarayudu is still alive, saved by Dhruva and his gang and the public funeral held was for Gautham.

Dhruva makes a deal that he would save Siddharth's life for information and evidence on all of his criminal associates and activities and gives him a bulletproof vest to fake his death during his transport to the court. They also plan to take down the setup planned by various VIPs to kill Siddharth when one of them gets close to Siddharth, Dhruva attacks him and notices that Siddharth did not wear the vest and is fatally shot by Preethi. Before dying, he tells Dhruva that he hid all the evidence in an SD card in the bulletproof vest.

Cast

*Ram Charan as ASP K. Dhruva IPS
*Arvind Swamy as Dr. Siddharth Abhimanyu alias Venkanna, Chengalarayudu's son
*Rakul Preet Singh as Dr. Ishika, a Forensic expert; former IPS officer; Dhruva's love interest
*Navdeep as Gowtham IPS, Dhruva's friend
*Posani Krishna Murali as Home Minister Chengalarayudu, Siddharth's father
*Sayaji Shinde as Dheeraj Chandra
*Abhinaya as Dr. Akshara
*Nassar as Chief Minister of Telangana
*Farah Karimaee as Preethi, Sidharth's girlfriend
* Ali Reza as Ranveer Singh IPS, Dhruva's friend
*Randhir Gattla as Karan IPS, Dhruva's friend
*Vidyullekha Raman as Ishika's friend
*Himaja as Ishika's friend
*Saurav Chakrabarti as Abbas Ali, Irfan Ali's younger brother
* Madhusudhan Rao as Irfan Ali, Abbas Ali's elder brother
*Ajay Rathnam as Subramaniam IPS, Ishika's father
*Surya as Ramaswamy
* C. V. L. Narasimha Rao as KMR
*Danielle Pires as Angelina
* Ram Karthik as Kamal
*Chatrapathi Sekhar as Chain Snatcher

Production

Development

In September 2015, producer D. V. V. Danayya had bought the remake rights of ''Thani Oruvan'' (2015), for a sum of , and announced that either Mahesh Babu or Ram Charan will play the lead role, with the latter being finalized, as Charan was impressed about the script. While, Surender Reddy, Vamshi Paidipally, Mohan Raja, the director of the original film, were supposed to helm the remake, Surender was chosen as the film's director. In an interview with, ''The Times of India'', Surender revealed that, it took him three months to complete the script, with two months for adapting the script in Telugu, and another month for the final draft being prepared. Following the poor performance of Charan's '' Bruce Lee: The Fighter'', Danayya stepped out of producing the venture, and subsequently Allu Aravind, bankrolled the project under the home studio Geetha Arts, collaborating with charan for the second time after ''Magadheera'' (2009). The film was tentatively titled as ''Rakshak'', before the title ''Dhruva'' was announced. For his role in the film Ram Charan, had undergone rigorous training with an array of fitness experts. Singer Vedala Hemachandra provided voiceover for Arvind Swamy.

Casting

Ajith Kumar and R. Madhavan were both offered to play Swamy's role from the original, however, they both declined. Rajasekhar had also been approached for the role, but also declined. Arvind Swamy was later chosen to reprise his role from the original film. Sources claimed that, Swamy had charged as remuneration. Shruti Haasan, was cast as the female lead, reprising Nayanthara's role, collaborating with Charan after ''Yevadu'' (2014), however due to schedule conflicts, she opted out of the project and was replaced by Rakul Preet Singh. Navdeep was cast as one of Charan's friends.

Hiphop Tamizha, who composed for the original film, were signed to compose the soundtrack for the film. Aseem Mishra, who worked in ''Bajrangi Bhaijaan'' (2015), was initially chosen as the film's cinematographer, but due to his inavailability, was replaced by P. S. Vinod. Naveen Nooli, Rajeevan and Nagendra were chosen as the editor, production designer and art director respectively. The stunt sequences were choreographed by Ravi Varma. Bosco-Caesar, who previously worked for Charan in ''Orange'' (2010), choreographed the song sequences.

Filming

The film was scheduled to be launched on 16 January 2016, however, the launch was tentatively delayed to 10 February 2016. The film was launched at the office of the production house Geetha Arts on 18 February 2016, and it was announced that the regular shooting of the film would commence on 22 February 2016. However, the principal photography was commenced without Ram Charan, and it was announced that he would join the shooting from 1 March 2016. As the second schedule of the film was scheduled to be held on 10 March, Ram Charan undergone image makeover and look tests for the film, and was reported to join the sets from 14 March 2016.

On 11 May 2016, the makers planned for a shooting schedule in Jammu and Kashmir, to film an important sequence and a song, and it also reported that Ram Charan may join the schedule. Later Ram Charan and Rakul Preet moved to Kashmir, for its second schedule, which was completed on 29 June, Following the second schedule, the team moved to Hyderabad, in July 2016 to shoot important sequences, and later planned to shoot the songs in August. An exclusive making video of the film was released, in which Ram Charan was performing risky stunts, all by himself, without using any body doubles.

In August 2016, the makers revealed that, the talkie portion of the film has been completed, and later planned to shoot two songs, along with the completion of post-production works. A special set for the introduction song of the film was erected on a huge scale. For the song shoot, Ram Charan reportedly got training himself under ''Sultan'' and '' Dangal'' fame bodybuilder Rakesh Udiyar. The song shoot was completed on late October. Later, Aravind Swamy completed his portions for Dhruva. The song "Pareshanura" was shot at the Krabi Islands in Thailand, which featured Ram Charan and Rakul Preet Singh. The song "Neethoney Dance" was filmed at a huge set erected at Annapurna Studios, which was choreographed by Bosco-Caesar duo. Following the song shoot, the principal photography was wrapped up on 11 November 2016.

Music

The soundtrack album and background score was composed by Hiphop Tamizha marking their debut in Telugu. The album features five tracks written by Chandrabose and Varikkuppala Yadagiri. The album was directly made available to stores and online by Aditya Music after plans for an audio launch being cancelled. While the songs are newly composed, the song "Theemai Dhan Vellum" from the original film, was reused in Telugu, titled "Manushi Musugulo Mrugam Neney Ra" released on 7 December 2016 on Sony Music India.

Release

Theatrical

Ram Charan planned to release the film on 7 October 2016, coinciding with the Dusshera festival, but the makers postponed its release to avoid clash with Naga Chaitanya-starrer ''Premam'' (2016); later pushed its release to 25 November 2016, which clashes with the Telugu version of Sivakarthikeyan-starrer ''Remo'' (2016), however, the release was postponed. The producers claimed that the 2016 Indian banknote demonetisation, has postponed the film's release. The makers finally announced that the film will be released worldwide on 9 December 2016. The film completed, the censor formalities on 21 November 2016, and was released in more than 200 screens in United States, on 8 December 2016, which is a biggest release for a Telugu film ever. In July 2017, a Hindi dubbed version was released by M/S Mantra India Digital Creations LLP, with Ajay Devgn and Arbaaz Khan providing voiceovers for Ram Charan and Arvind Swamy respectively.

Marketing

Ram Charan released the pre-look of the film on 12 August 2016, The first look of the film was released on the occasion of Independence Day, 15 August 2016. The teaser was initially supposed to be released on 5 September 2016, coinciding with Vinayaka Chathurthi. However, the teaser was released on 11 October 2016, coinciding with Dusshera. The teaser crossed 1 million views within 24 hours of its release. The making video of the film was released in October 2016. The theatrical trailer of the film was released on 25 November 2016, and crossed 5 million views within release. The pre-release event of the film was held on 4 December 2016, at Yousufguda Police Lines in Hyderabad, where the promo videos of two songs "Pareshanura" and "Neethoney Dance" was released. The promo of "Neethoney dance" featured appearances of Chiranjeevi, Allu Arjun, Allu Sirish, Akhil Akkineni, Shruti Hassan, producer Allu Arvind, directors Koratala Siva and V. V. Vinayak respectively.

The Broadcasting rights bought by Gemini TV and streaming rights bagged with Sun NXT. The film premiere on 5 April 2017 on television gain good rating at 14.98 in urban markets.

Reception

Box office

Within first week, the film earned worldwide,

Critical response

''The Times of India'', gave 4 out of 5 stars and stated "Dhruva promises to be an edge-of-the-seat entertainer and it delivers impeccably. You won't find yourself looking away from the screen through the two-hour-forty-minute runtime. A remake done right." ''Firstpost'' gave 3 out of 5 stating "Dhruva is an edgy action thriller tale about a smart cop (Ram Charan) pitched against an evil mastermind scientist (Arvind Swamy) and is a very well adapted remake of Thani Oruvan." ''Behindwoods'' gave 4 out of 5 and stated "With added commercial features, "Dhruva" turns out to be an intelligent and a way more superior than the original film." ''The Indian Express'' gave 3.5 out of 5 stating "This film has three stars -- its hero Ram Charan Teja, its powerful villain Arvind Swamy and its script."

''The Hindu'' rated "‘Dhruva’ leaves you with the feeling of having read a fast-paced, unputdownable thriller."

In contrast, ''Hindustan Times'' rated 4 out of 5 stars and commented "Ram Charan's performance is so physically and mentally fit that it scream for attention while Arvind Swamy balances his viciousness and cunning intellect equally, which is enough to destroy any protagonist. Perfect combination for the film." ''Deccan Chronicle'' gave 3.5 out of 5 stars and stated: "Dhruva's makers had a ready, proven, super-hit script in front of them which is pretty fruitful."

References

External links

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{{Surender Reddy

Telugu remakes of Tamil films
Geetha Arts films
Fictional portrayals of the Telangana Police
Fictional portrayals of the Andhra Pradesh Police
Indian action thriller films
Films directed by Surender Reddy
Films shot in Jammu and Kashmir
Indian police films
Films shot in Hyderabad, India
2010s Telugu-language films
2010s Indian films
2016 action thriller films
2010s police films
Films shot in Thailand
Indian crime thriller films
Indian crime action films
Films scored by Hiphop Tamizha
Films about security and surveillance
Medical-themed films
Techno-thriller films
Films about kidnapping in India
Films about organised crime in India
Films about medical malpractice
Forensic science in popular culture
Films set in 1980
Films set in 1995
Films set in 2016
Indian political films