Naayak

''Naayak'' () is a 2013 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film directed by V. V. Vinayak who co-wrote the film with Akula Siva. The film was produced by DVV Danayya and presented by S. Radha Krishna under the banner Universal Media. The film stars Ram Charan, Kajal Aggarwal, and Amala Paul in the lead roles. S. Thaman composed the film's score and soundtrack. Chota K. Naidu was the cinematographer and Gautham Raju was the film's editor.

Production began on 9 November 2011 and principal photography began on 7 February 2012. The film was extensively shot in Hyderabad and Kolkata, while a couple of the songs were shot in Dubai, Iceland, and Slovenia, making ''Naayak'' the first Indian film to be shot in Slovenia. Filming ended on 29 December 2012.

''Naayak'' was released on 9 January 2013 on 1589 screens worldwide, during the season of the Makara Sankranti, where it received generally positive reviews from critics and emerged as the fifth highest-grossing Telugu film of 2013 grossing over ₹84 crore at the box office and collecting a distributors' share of ₹46.5 crore.

Plot

Central Minister Rawat's brother Taxi Seth and his henchmen are killed by a person named Siddharth Naayak in order to save his friends. Rawat orders a CBI officer to catch the fugitive in order to have him executed. Meanwhile, Siddharth's doppelganger Charan alias "Cherry" works a software engineer in CgTrix, Hyderabad. Cherry's uncle Jilebi, who is the CEO of CgTrix, unexpectedly runs into trouble by angering the local gangster named Babji. Cherry saves Jilebi from Babji by manipulating him, where he becomes romantically interested in Babji's sister Madhu. After Cherry saves several children from a group of human traffickers led by Dassu, Madhu reciprocates his love.

Meanwhile, Siddharth sneaks into the police headquarters and kills the DGP of West Bengal, with a gun, where the CBI officer confusingly believes that Cherry killed DGP, although Siddharth is the real culprit. With Jilebi, the CBI officer goes to Kumbh Mela in pursuit of Cherry. As Rawat is offering holy rituals, the CBI officer catches Cherry and holds him, but Siddharth stabs Rawat with a ''trishula''. However, the CBI Officer attacks him with a taser and arrests him, thereby releasing Cherry. Later on the way back, Cherry learns about Siddharth's past.

Past: Siddharth visits his sister's house in Kolkata after passing IIT in Delhi and lives with his sister, brother-in-law and fiancée Nandini. Siddharth's brother-in-law, who is a doctor, attends a case of a minor who was injected with steroids by Rawat's second brother Badvel and then forced into prostitution. When Siddharth's brother-in-law complains to the police, he is unaware that the police officer is in cahoots with Badvel, who later kills him. Enraged in revenge, Siddharth kills Badvel and his men, where he becomes a public sensation overnight.

One night, Rawat, Taxi Seth and their men tries to kill Siddharth, but Siddharth fights them and warns Rawat and Taxi Seth. Siddharth becomes the reigning leader of West Bengal and a terror to Rawat and the Kolkata underworld, where he also seizes Rawat's property and distributes it to the public. Enraged, Rawat kills the Minister, and frames on Siddharth, who gets stabbed and thrown into the Ganges. Rawat becomes the Central Minister within a week, while Siddharth survives and plans to finish Rawat.

Present: After learning this, Cherry decides to help him and goes to the CBI prison where Siddharth is in custody. The two hatches a plan to get Siddharth exonerated. Siddharth and Cherry arrive at the court and both starts an argument, leading to some confusion. The judge orders the CBI to find out the real identities of the two persons within 10 days. During that time, Siddharth manages to bring Madhu and her family to Kolkata, thus uniting Cherry and Madhu.

The next day, Rawat calls Siddarth to come to his place to save the kidnapped school children, but Cherry eavesdrops on the conversation and goes to Rawat's place ahead of Siddharth, where he is severely attacked by Rawat. Siddharth reaches the place after watching a MMS sent by Rawat, where he saves Cherry and finally kills Rawat, with a bomb. The case is dismissed due to lack of evidence, and Siddharth is acquitted. After this, Siddharth and Cherry unite with their respective lovers.

Cast

Production

Development

At the end of April 2011, V. V. Vinayak held story discussions for his next film, featuring Ram Charan as the protagonist and written by Akula Siva. By then, Vinayak was busy in giving final touches to his film ''Badrinath'' (2011), and Ram Charan was participating in the shooting of ''Racha'' (2012), directed by Sampath Nandi. After completing all of the promotional activities for ''Badrinath'', Vinayak and Siva started working on the film's script in early July 2011. DVV Danayya was confirmed to produce the film under the banner Universal Media, and pre-production on the film was expected to be launched in August, followed by filming starting in September 2011. The film's script was approved by Ram Charan's father, and it was announced that actor Chiranjeevi would be part of the cast; Kona Venkat was brought in to assist with the film's screenplay. The project was confirmed in late October 2011. The film was officially launched on 9 November 2011, at Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad.

S. Thaman was announced as the music director, marking his first collaboration with both Vinayak and Charan; Chota K. Naidu and Gautham Raju were announced as the film's cinematographer and editor, respectively. The film's title was announced as ''Naayak'', with the caption "The Leader", on 13 August 2012. Weeks before the film's release, a few Girijan students protested that the term "Naayak" referred to a certain tribal group, and they demanded a change of the title. While censoring the film, the Central Board of Film Certification looked into the group's objection about the title. They found that there was no derogatory reference to either the name Naayak or the caste of tribes, either visually or in the audio part of the film, and cleared the use of the title.

Casting

Kajal Aggarwal was considered for one of the two female leads in the film in early October 2011, later signing on to the film, which marked her second collaboration with Ram Charan after ''Magadheera'' (2009). Ram Charan confirmed that he would be seen in a dual role in the film. Hansika Motwani was rumoured as the second female lead, however this was denied by Danayya, who added that she was never considered for that role, and Kajal was the only actress who had been signed up until that point. In late February 2012, Amala Paul was selected as the second female lead, which she confirmed to Sify saying "Mynaa meets Magadheera".

It was reported that Shruti Haasan would perform an item number in the film, which she later denied. Chiranjeevi and N. T. Rama Rao Jr. were rumoured to make cameo appearance in the film. Charmee Kaur confirmed in late December 2012 that she would perform an item number along with Ram Charan. Posani Krishna Murali and Jaya Prakash Reddy were seen in comic roles.

Filming

Principal photography began on 7 February 2012. By April 2012, the film was shot at various locales in Hyderabad. A few action sequences were shot at night, for which Ram Charan trained for several days; he performed several of the stunt sequences himself without using a body double. Filming was suspended for almost three weeks when Ram Charan was injured during filming ''Racha'' (2012). Vinayak intended to complete shooting Ram Charan's solo portions and then start the schedule with Kajal; Ram Charan and Amala Paul would take part in the final part of the planned schedule.

The next portion of the schedule started in Dubai, where a song, "Laila O Laila", with Ram Charan and Kajal was shot. Ram Charan later said "It was a week before my wedding and I had just returned from my bachelor's party. I landed directly in Dubai to shoot the song. I had to wear shades to hide the fatigue" and added "I was told that I wouldn't need much rehearsals, but was zapped when I saw the choreographer take me through the routine. I was like 'can we please slow the beat or something?' I couldn't settle for anything less than the best and went ahead and completed the song in seven days." After its completion, some key scenes and songs were shot in Europe involving the three leads.

Subsequent to the marriage ceremony, Ram Charan resumed his work on ''Naayak'' in late June 2012, after shooting for a Tata DoCoMo commercial. The song "Subhalekha Raasukunna" was shot in Iceland on 22 August 2012. It was originally planned to be shot using Ram Charan and Kajal, but it was filmed using Amala Paul instead, as Kajal had a scheduling conflict. After the completion of that song, two more songs were shot using Ram Charan and Kajal. After returning from Iceland, filming continued in the Old City in Hyderabad. On 7 October 2012, scenes featuring Ram Charan and Amala Paul were shot at the Cineplanet Multiplex near Kompally.

The next part of the schedule started in Kolkata from 12 October 2012. Some action episodes involving Ram Charan, Dev Gill, and others, and a few continuity scenes were shot. An entire day was spent shooting a few action episodes with Ram Charan at Chhotelal Ghat near the Mullickghat flower market, since Vinayak insisted on perfection. This portion of the schedule ended on 22 October 2012. The team returned to Hyderabad and filming continued in a set erected at Sarathi Studios. By mid November 2012, a majority of the filming was complete, with final completion expected in December 2012.

The last portion of the schedule began on 4 December 2012, during which the remaining climax action episodes scenes and a song were planned to be shot until 18 December 2012. Amala Paul joined the filming of the climax on 7 December 2012, after returning from the sets of '' Thalaivaa'' (2013). The song "Nellorae" was shot using Ram Charan and Charmee at Ramoji Film City on 24 December 2012, and after its completion, filming came to an end on 29 December 2012. The filming phase lasted for approximately 9 months, and the film was the first Indian film to be shot in Slovenia. Ram Charan completed his part of dubbing in late December 2012.

Themes and influences

The film features a protagonist in a dual role, revolving around their lifestyles and the circumstances when they meet. A reviewer from Sify felt that the film's script was inspired from V. V. Vinayak's previous works like ''Tagore'' (2003), ''Lakshmi'' (2006), ''Krishna'' (2008) and '' Adhurs'' (2009), as well as from S. S. Rajamouli's past works like '' Simhadri'' (2003) and ''Chhatrapati'' (2005) and S. Shankar's Tamil film '' Sivaji'' (2007).

Akula Siva said that the dialogue in the film had a philosophical touch despite being humorous and added, "The hero is elevated on par with divinity in the introduction; such glorification is imperative, if the hero doesn't have that power and courage he cannot fight so many people".

Music

S. Thaman composed the film's soundtrack and background music, marking his first collaboration with both V. V. Vinayak and Ram Charan. The soundtrack featured six songs with lyrics written by Chandrabose, Veturi Sundararama Murthy, Bhaskarabhatla Ravi Kumar and Sahithi. The song "Subhalekha Rasukunna", originally composed by Ilaiyaraaja for the film '' Kondaveeti Donga'' (1990) was remixed for this film. The film's soundtrack, which was marketed by Aditya Music, was launched on 17 December 2012, during a promotional event at Ramanaidu Studios.

Release

''Naayak'' was planned to be released on 12 January 2013, coinciding with Sankranthi weekend. Later the film's release was rumoured to be delayed due to Danayya's financial hardships. although he later confirmed the release date as 9 January 2013, denying the previous reports as rumors. The film was awarded an 'A' certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification on 4 January 2013. Six cuts were suggested by the board to delete politically charged dialogue, and few other lines that included the names of the Andhra Pradesh Governors, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. The board also requested a few words being altered in the song "Nellorae", and the display of a statutory warning on drinking and smoking wherever they occur in the film.

The film was shown on 110 screens in Hyderabad, breaking the previous records set by '' Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu'' (2012) and ''Businessman'' (2012), which were released in 105 and 103 theatres, respectively. Universal Media, in association with Praneeth Media, released the film on more than 100 screens in the United States, including 70 digital prints and sixteen 35 mm prints, which was a first for a Telugu film in an overseas market. The makers said that the film would be released in more than 1200 theatres in Andhra Pradesh.

Marketing

On the eve of Valentine's Day, first look stills of the film were released to the media. A few stills featuring Ram Charan were unveiled on 18 August 2012, which featured him sporting a new look. Two first look posters, confirming the film's title and its spelling, were unveiled on 26 November 2012. The film's first teaser was unveiled on 14 December 2012. Allu Arjun and S. S. Rajamouli unveiled the trailers at Shilpakala Vedika during the soundtrack launch.

Distribution

By early November 2012, the film's trade came to an end in all areas except Guntur. Bharath Pictures acquired the film's Nellore

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