''Nijam'' () is a 2003 Indian Telugu-language

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

written, directed and produced by Teja on Chitram Movies banner. The film stars

Mahesh Babu Ghattamaneni Mahesh Babu (born 9 August 1975) is an Indian actor who works in Telugu cinema. He is one of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinema and has featured in ''Forbes India''s Celebrity 100 list since 2012. He has appeared in more tha ...

Rakshita Shweta, known by her stage name Rakshita, is an Indian television personality, film producer and former actress known for her work in Kannada cinema, Kannada films, addition to a few Telugu cinema, Telugu and Tamil cinema, Tamil films. Early ...

, Gopichand and Raasi, with music was composed by R. P. Patnaik. Babu and Talluri Rameshwari won the

Nandi Awards The Nandi Awards are annual awards presented by the Government of Andhra Pradesh to recognise excellence in Telugu cinema, theatre, and television, as well as lifetime achievements in Indian cinema. The awards are named after the monolithic ...

in Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories respectively. It was remade in Odia as ''Arjun'' (2005) starring Anubhav Mohanty and in

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

as ''Top Leader'' (2005) starring

Shakib Khan Masud Rana Sheikh (born 28 March 1979), better known by the stage name Shakib Khan, is a Bangladeshi actor and filmmaker who works in Bengali language, Bengali films. He is widely regarded as one of the most popular figures of all time in Benga ...

Plot

Sidda Reddy is a powerful gangster. His right-hand man Devadaya "Devudu" Sharma has a lover named Malli. Reddy, who also likes Malli, takes her to his bed, which is not liked by Devudu. Eventually, Devudu kills Reddy and becomes the leader of the gang. Venkateswarlu is a fire officer, who slaps Devudu when the latter set a marketplace on fire and continued throwing

kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...

at the marketplace. Devudu holds a grudge against Venkateswarlu, where he sends him to prison on a framed charge of the murder of Malli's brother Baddu. Venkateswarlu's son G. Seetharam tries to rescue his father, but everybody starts asking him for a bribe to do the work. At the end of the day, CI Mohan and Devudu kill Venkateswarlu. Enraged, Seetaram's mother Shanthi and Seetharam execute the people involved in Venkateswarlu's death in a planned and scientific manner and also finish Devudu, thus exacting their vengeance.

Cast

as G. Sitaram *

as Janaki * Gopichand as Devadaya "Devudu" Sarma * Raasi as Malli *

Prakash Raj Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai; 26 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Telugu language, Telugu, Tamil language, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, English language, Engl ...

as ACP Raja Narendra *

Jaya Prakash Reddy Jaya Prakash Reddy (8 May 1946 – 8 September 2020) was an Indian actor who predominantly appeared in Telugu films. Born in Sirvel of Andhra Pradesh, he came into the limelight with the film ''Samarasimha Reddy'' (1999) where he played the ro ...

as Sidda Reddy * Ranganath as G. Venkateswarlu, Sitaram's father * Rameswari as Santhi, Sitaram's mother *

Brahmaji Brahmaji (born 25 April 1965) is an Indian who works in Telugu cinema. He is a regular actor in director Krishna Vamsi's films. Brahmaji appeared in an important role in Krishna Vamsi's debut film as a director, '' Gulabi''. He appeared in Kri ...

as CI D. Mohan * Vijayachander as DGP * Jeeva as DCP Murali Krishna * Suman Setty as Baddu *

Kanta Rao Tadepalli Lakshmi Kantha Rao (16 November 1923 – 22 March 2009) was an Indian actor and producer known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. Regarded as one of the finest method actors, Rao appeared in more than 400 feature films, ...

as Narayana Rao * Rallapalli as a butcher * Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam as a traffic constable * Kondavalasa as Sitaram's neighbor *

Duvvasi Mohan Duvvasi Mohan is an Indian actor who is known for acting in comic roles, primarily in Telugu cinema, Telugu films. He is from Jagtial. He entered Telugu cinema as a producer, but later turned to acting and appeared in comedy roles in over 350 fi ...

as Patil *

Tirupathi Prakash Timmapuram Karanam Ravi Prakash Rao, popularly known as Tirupathi Prakash, is an Indian actor in Telugu cinema. Tirupathi Prakash started his career in the television and film industry as comedy artist and supporting artist. He has acted in m ...

Shakeela C. Shakeela, known mononymously as Shakeela, is an Indian actress and politician who has predominantly acted in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Malayalam cinema, Malayalam and Telugu language, Telugu language films. She is a member of Indian National C ...

*Alapati Lakshmi *Master Ghatamaneni Jaya Krishna as a young Sitaram

Cameo appearance

* Mani Chandana as a dancer (cameo appearance in the song "Rathalu Rathalu")

Soundtrack

Music was composed by R. P. Patnaik. Lyrics were penned by Kulasekhar. Music was released on Aditya Music.

Release

Reception

Jeevi of ''Idlebrain'' gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Overall, it's an average film that has chances to become hit because of the Teja's mass-attracting episodes and Mahesh Babu's brilliant portrayal of the character". Vijayalakshmi 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 ...

'' wrote "Only a couple of things salvage director Teja's Nijam -- the first is an excellent performance by lead star and teen sensation Mahesh. The second is cinematographer Samir Reddy's camera work.

Box office

In an interview, Teja said "We made Nijam in a budget of 6.5 crore; We sold audio rights for 2 crore and movie initially were sold for a total of 26 crore. In total, we made a profit of 5-6 crore and Nijam was not a flop". In an interview with ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'', Teja told "I worked with Mahesh after he had a flop called '' Bobby'', but Nijam released after '' Okkadu'' and people drew comparisons. I don’t argue when people say Nijam was a flop. The film was made with a budget of 6.5 crore and sold for 21 crore. I repaid money to whoever lost money and still made a huge profit".

Dubbed versions and remakes

The film was also 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 ...

as ''Nijam'', and then again in 2012 as ''Seerum Singam''. The film was dubbed as ''Meri Adalat'' in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, in

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

as ''Aamar Protishodh'' and in

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri may refer to: * Bhojpuri language, an Indo-Aryan language of India and Nepal * Bhojpuri grammar, grammatical rules of the language * Bhojpuri nouns, nouns of the language * Bhojpuri people, people who speak the language * Bhojpuri region ...

as ''Hamaar Faisla''. It was remade as ''Arjun'' (2005) in Odia starring Anubhab Mohanty and Gargi Mohanty and Bangladesh as ''Top Leader'' (2005) starring

Awards

Won

;

* Best Actor -

* Best Supporting Actress - Talluri Rameswari ;

CineMAA Awards The CineMAA Awards are presented annually by the Maa TV Group to honour artistic and technical excellence of professionals in Telugu cinema. The awards were introduced in 2004. The CineMAA Awards are voted for by both the public and a committee ...

* Best Villain - Gopichand

Nominated

;

Filmfare Awards South The Filmfare Awards South are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema and Kannada cinema. They are presented by ''Filmfare'' magazine of The Times Group. When it was intr ...

* Best Actor - Telugu -

* Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress - Telugu - Taluri Rameswari ;

* CineMAA Award for Best Actor - Male - Mahesh Babu * CineMAA Award for Best Film - Teja

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0368896 2003 films Films about corruption in India 2000s Telugu-language films Telugu films remade in other languages Films directed by Teja (film director) Indian vigilante films Indian action films Indian films about revenge Films scored by R. P. Patnaik 2003 action films 2000s vigilante films