''Rakta Charitra'' () is a 2010 Indian

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

action thriller 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 ...

based on the life of Paritala Ravindra. The film was directed by

Ram Gopal Varma Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma (born 7 April 1962), often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, primarily known for his work in Hindi cinema, Hindi and Telugu cinema, Telugu films.** * * Varma has dir ...

and written by

Prashant Pandey Prashant Pandey is a Mumbai-based writer director. He started his career writing Amitabh Bachchan's critically acclaimed '' Sarkar Raj'' (2008) featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai. Educated at Hansraj College Univer ...

. Shot simultaneously in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

and

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 ...

, with the latter titled ''Rakht Charitra'', the film stars an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to the po ...

Vivek Oberoi Vivek Anand Oberoi (born 3 September 1976) is an Indian actor and businessman. The son of actor Suresh Oberoi, he began acting in 2002 with starring roles in the Hindi crime film ''Company'' and romantic drama '' Saathiya''. His performances ...

Suriya Saravanan Sivakumar (born 23 July 1975), known professionally as Suriya, is an Indian actor and film producer who primarily works in Tamil films. One of the highest-paid Tamil actors, Suriya is considered as one of the finest actors of Indian ...

Radhika Apte Radhika Apte () (born 7 September 1985) is an Indian film and television actress. She began acting in theatre and made her film debut with a brief role in the fantasy drama ''Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi!'' (2005). Her first lead role was in the 2009 ...

Sudeep Sudeep Sanjeev (born 2 September 1971), also known as Kichcha Sudeepa, is an Indian actor, director, producer, screenwriter, singer and television presenter, who primarily works in Kannada cinema. He has also worked in Hindi cinema, Hindi, Te ...

Shatrughan Sinha Shatrughan Prasad Sinha (born 15 July 1946) is an Indian actor and politician. He is a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Asansol constituency as a member of All India Trinamool Congress (TMC). Earlier he was elected as Member of Parliament ...

Abhimanyu Singh Abhimanyu Singh is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. He is notably known for his roles in the political films '' Gulaal'' (2009) and '' Rakta Charita'' (2010). Career Abhimanyu Singh made his debut wi ...

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 ...

Ashish Vidyarthi Ashish Vidyarthi (born 19 June 1965) is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, English, Odia, Marathi and Bengali films. He is noted for his antagonist and character roles. In 1995, he receive ...

and

Sushant Singh Sushant Singh (born 9 March 1972) is an Indian actor and television presenter known for his work in Hindi cinema. He made his acting debut in 1998 with Ram Gopal Varma's ''Satya'' and gained critical acclaim for his role as the bandit Durgaa N ...

. The film marks Oberoi's acting debut in

Telugu cinema Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to the production of Film, motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Based in Film N ...

. The sequel to the film '' Rakta Charitra 2'' (2010) was released later that year. Despite of its controversies for portrayal of extreme violence and political content, the film met with huge critical acclaim, with critics praising the screenplay, story, direction, cinematography, dialogues, and realistic approach. However, due to extreme violence, the film's some scenes are removed and some dialogues are muted. The film was a box-office failure at that time, but Oberoi's portrayal of Paritala Ravi was deemed one of the best performances in his filmography by critics and audiences. This marks the third collaboration of Ram Gopal Varma with Vivek Oberoi after "

Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

" and "

Road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

," both of which were decent hits, though "

" was more successful.

Plot

Narasimha Reddy ( Kitty), a local

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

, is a powerful man in the area. His close associate, Gajula Veerabhadra (

Rajendra Gupta Rajendra Gupta (born 17 October 1947) is an Indian film, television and theatre actor and director who is known for his television roles of Adina Beg Khan Sahib e Azam in 2010 series of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Pandit Jagannath in the 1990s Doorda ...

), is his trustworthy ally for his political work, to the extent that Narasimha Reddy gives him the freedom to contest Zilla Parishad polls with his men. Veerabhadra champions the causes of the poor and oppressed, and they look up to him as their leader. Nagamani Reddy (

), the local MLA of the district and close to Narasimha Reddy, becomes jealous of the budding trust between Veerabhadra and Narasimha Reddy and starts

poison A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...

ing Narasimha Reddy against Veerabhadra. Narasimha Reddy summons Veerabhadra and asks him not to contest the polls with his contestants but rather to support Nagamani Reddy. Veerabhadra lashes out at Narasimha Reddy for being unfair to the underprivileged communities and storms out. Nagamani Reddy calls for Mandha (

), a close follower of Veerabhadra, and manipulates him into killing Veerabhadra, giving him the assurance that if he does it, people will suspect the policies of Veerabhadra as his own follower killed him, and he will be the next in line as the leader of the poor people; otherwise, take his life. Mandha reluctantly agrees to it. Veerabhadra and his wife, Gajula Jayalakshmi (

Zarina Wahab Zarina Wahab is an Indian actress who predominantly worked in Hindi and Malayalam films. Known for critically acclaimed roles in ''Chitchor'' and '' Gopal Krishna'' in Hindi and Malayalam cinema with films like '' Madanolsavam'', '' Chamaram' ...

), travel by bus with 40 people to a wedding. Mandha and Nagamani Reddy's men stop the bus, kill Veerabhadra's guards, and tell him to step out of the bus or else he will be killed along with the other innocents on the bus. Veerabhadra comes out, looking at Mandha, and dares him to kill. Nagamani Reddy's henchman, Durga ( Chetanya Adib), shoots at Veerabhadra, making it look like Mandha shot at him. Prompting Mandha about the deal he made with Nagamani Reddy, he tells him to kill him in front of everyone. Manda then kills Veerabhadra by crushing his skull with a boulder. This results in an agitation led by Thota Shankar Ravi (

), who wants to avenge his father's murder by killing all the men of Nagamani Reddy and Narasimha Reddy. Enter Nagamani Reddy's son, Bukka Reddy (

), a ruthless man who enjoys raping women and killing men in brutal ways. He starts killing Shankar's men in gory ways: drilling a hole into their skulls, chopping off their heads with a sugarcane chopper, burning them alive, and feeding them to ravenous rats. Pratap Ravi (

), who is in college in the city of

Anantapur Anantapur, officially Anantapuramu, is a city in Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the mandal headquarters of Anantapuru Tehsil, mandal and also the divisional headquarters of Anantapur revenue division. The city ...

, gets the news of his father's murder and rushes to the village. Nagamani Reddy orders the local police inspector to kill Shankar in a fake encounter. When Pratap Ravi goes to the police station to ask about his brother, the inspector shows him Shankar's dead body and mocks him. Infuriated with his brother's murder, Pratap Ravi and Veerabhadra's men kill all the police officers and the inspector. Pratap Ravi hides in the jungle with his father's associates and vows to kill Narsimha Reddy, Nagamani Reddy, and Mandha one by one, instilling fear of death in each one of them. He starts by busting into the house of Narasimha Reddy, killing his guards, and finally killing him with a scythe in front of his wife as she looks on in horror. Next is Mandha; as he roams in the market, Pratap Ravi's men follow him, and before he can defend himself, they chop his hand off. Manda begs for his life, but Pratap Ravi stabs him in front of everyone. They plan to kill Nagamani Reddy, but they are cautious as there is heavy police security at his house. As Nagamani Reddy is sitting on his lawn conversing with a police officer, he is shot at by Pratap Ravi, who is dressed as the cop, and his men, dressed as cops as well, kill most of the policemen. The story progresses as famed film star-turned-politician Konda Shivaji Rao (

) targets Anantapur for contesting elections. The day he enters Anantapur for the rally, Bukka Reddy's men throw bombs, making Shivaji Rao get back inside the car and return. This insults him greatly, and he asks his secretary for the one who can stop Bukka Reddy. Immediately, his secretary mentions Pratap Ravi's name; Shivaji Rao sends for him and puts down a proposal to join his party and a ticket for contesting elections. On the other hand, Bukka Reddy makes his brother Puru Reddy (

Vishwajeet Pradhan Vishwajeet Pradhan (born 11 September 1965) is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Bollywood films, theatre and television. He is well-known for his role as Pakistani Captain in Kya Dilli Kya Lahore and as Thakur Rudra Pratap in Ek Boon ...

) contest elections and tries to sabotage the voting process by stealing the ballots. Pratap Ravi starts his rampage by eliminating, one by one, every rival of his party. Eventually, he comes across a man named Babu Qadri, who seeks Pratap Ravi's help to avenge his sister's death. Bukka Reddy had raped his 16-year-old sister, because of which she immolated herself, and Bukka Reddy had then broken Babu Qadri's leg. Pratap Ravi assures him of his vengeance but asks him to forget everything for some time. As Bukka Reddy's men fail to rig the election process, Pratap Ravi wins by a majority. Immediately, Bukka Reddy is arrested. Puru Reddy gets him out on bail through Sirji's influence. Bukka Reddy inflamed with the desire to avenge his father's death, hides out in an apartment with his men and plots to kill Pratap Ravi. Pratap Ravi learns about his hideout and devises a plan to execute him. He immediately gathers his men and calls Babu Qadri, who had sought Pratap Ravi's help in avenging his sister, to lead the execution of Bukka Reddy. He calls for Bukka Reddy's servant and bribes him with 500,000 to aid in the execution. Babu Qadri and Pratap Ravi's men rush into the apartment, killing all of Bukka Reddy's men and then killing Bukka Reddy with an axe.

Cast

as Kattula Pratap Ravi (based on Paritala Ravi) *

as Yeturi Suryanarayana Reddy alias Surya (based on Gangula Suryanarayana Reddy alias Maddelacheruvu Suri) (cameo appearance) *

as Kattula Nandini (based on Paritala Sunitha) *

as DCP Dasari Mohan Prasad *

as Konda Shivaji Rao (based on NTR) *

as Rajidi Nagamani Reddy (based on Sane Chenna Reddy) *

as Thota Shankar Ravi (based on Paritala Hari) *

as Rajidi Bukka Reddy (based on Sane Obul Reddy) *

as Gajula Veerabhadra (based on Paritala Sreeramulu) *

as Gajula Jayalakshmi (based on Paritala Narayanamma) * Kitty as Narasimha Reddy (based on Gangula Narayana Reddy; voice dubbed by Shakti Singh) *

as Mandha *

Ashwini Kalsekar Ashwini Kalsekar is an Indian actress who works predominantly in the Marathi and Hindi television and film industry. She has primarily worked with Sriram Raghavan, Rohit Shetty, Ram Gopal Varma and Ekta Kapoor. After playing a cop in the popu ...

as Ashwini Sinha *

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 Padalaneni Ramamurti *

Pragathi Pragathi Mahavadi (born 16 April 1976) is an Indian film and television actress who has acted predominantly in Telugu cinema and in addition to Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam cinema. Early life Pragathi was born in Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, India. ...

as Harita * Om Kumar as Babu Qadri *

Darshan Jariwala Darshan Jariwala (born 29 September 1958) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films, television and stage. He won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Gandhi, My Father''. He is popular for his show in which he was seen ...

as SP Kanoonga *

Subrat Dutta Subrata Dutta (born 16 November 1975) is an actor who appears in Indian films. He is best known for his role in Bollywood films like Talaash: The Answer Lies Within, ''Talaash'', ''Tango Charlie'', Zameen (2003 film), ''Zameen'', ''The Shaukeen ...

as AK *

Sushmita Mukherjee Sushmita Mukherjee is an Indian actress and author. She has starred in several Hindi movies and television shows. She studied at Jesus and Mary College of the University of Delhi. She is an alumnus of National School of Drama passing out in 198 ...

as Bolla Gomati * Sanjay Mone as Nandini's father * Sukanya Kulkarni as Nandini's mother * Chetanya Adib as Tella Durga *

Anupam Shyam Anupam Shyam Ojha (20 September 1957 – 8 August 2021) was an Indian film and television actor, who usually played villainous roles. He appeared as ''Sajjan Singh Thakur'' in the STAR Plus TV series '' Mann Kee Awaaz Pratigya'' (2009 and 2021) ...

as Recharla Omkar * Salman Yusuff Khan (special appearance)

Critical reception

Vivek Oberoi's performance in the role of Paritala Ravi drew widespread praise, while Abhimanyu Singh's devious turn as Bukka Reddy, modeled on the real-life Obul Reddy, was regarded as one of the terrifying villainous acts captured on celluloid in a long time. Renuka Rao of

DNA India The ''Daily News and Analysis'', abbreviated as ''DNA'', is a Hindi-language news program on Zee news that was earlier an English-language newspaper with multiple local city editions across India. ''DNA'' was first launched as a broadsheet newspa ...

gave the movie 4 stars on a scale of 5, concluding that RGV has surprisingly thrown at the audience a film that could actually evoke some emotions in you. A must, must watch."

Taran Adarsh Taran Adarsh (born 13 June 1965) is an Indian film critic and trade analyst. He is best known for giving trade figures and box office updates on social media, as well as his reviews for Bollywood Hungama. Career Taran Adarsh started his journ ...

of ''Bollywood Hungama'' gave the movie 4 stars on a scale of 5, saying "On the whole, RAKHT CHARITRA is not for the faint-hearted or the lily-livered. The violence, the blood and gore depicted in the film will shock and disconcert you, which only goes to establish as to how proficiently the subject material has been treated." Nikhat Kazmi of

Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

gave the movie 3 stars out of 5, stating that "Rakta Charitra holds up a brutal mirror on the muck that masquerades as democracy in India." Rajeev Masand of

CNN-IBN CNN News18 is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides international coverage for the c ...

gave the movie 3 out of 5 stars, noting that "Rakta Charitra is a bold, disturbing film that’s bursting with the kind of confidence we haven’t seen from the filmmaker recently. If the sight of blood doesn’t make you uncomfortable, chances are you’ll enjoy this film." Kittu Singh 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 the movie 2.5 out of 5, writing that "Once the film is over you realise that all Rakta Charitra has been is a two-hour promotional fare for Rakta Charitra 2. Yes, there is more to come." Anupama Chopra of

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy. NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...

gave the movie 2.5 stars on a scale of 5 stars. Shubhra Gupta of

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language India, Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the Indian Express Limited, ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnat ...

gave the movie 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote "It is an interesting story, and Oberoi, re-united with RGV after Company does a good job as Ravi. But the blood overtakes it all: Rakta Charitra is not for the faint-hearted."

Accolades

;2011

Screen Awards The Screen Awards was an annual awards ceremony held in India, honouring professional excellence in Bollywood. The nomination and award selection was done by a panel of distinguished professionals from the industry. The awards were introduced ...

Nominated * Best Actor – Vivek Oberoi * Best Supporting Actress – Zarina Wahab * Best Female Debut – Radhika Apte *Best Action – Javed-Eijaz ;2011

Stardust Awards The Stardust Awards was an award ceremony for Hindi movies, which was sponsored by '' Stardust'' magazine. Here is a list of the award winners and the films for which they won. The first ceremony was held in 2004 for films released in 2003. The ...

Nominated *Best Film of the Year – Action / Thriller – Rakht Charitra *Best Director – Thriller/ Action – Ram Gopal Varma *Best Actor in an Ensemble Cast – Abhimanyu Singh *Best Actress in an Ensemble Cast – Zarina Wahab ;2011

Zee Cine Awards The Zee Cine Award (ZCA) is an annual Indian awards ceremony for the Hindi film industry. They were instituted in November 1997 to award "Excellence in cinema – the democratic way". They were first held in Mumbai until 2004, when the ZCA w ...

Nominated * Best Actor in a Negative Role – Abhimanyu Singh

Soundtrack

Sequel

A sequel titled '' Rakta Charitra 2'' was released in December 2010 and included Tamil actor

as part of the main cast.

References

External links

* {{Portalbar, Bollywood Indian multilingual films 2010 action thriller films 2010 crime drama films 2010 crime thriller films 2010 films 2010 multilingual films 2010s Hindi-language films 2010s political thriller films 2010s Telugu-language films Biographical action films Indian biographical films Indian films about revenge Indian films based on actual events Films about organised crime in India Films directed by Ram Gopal Varma Cultural depictions of N. T. Rama Rao Films set in Andhra Pradesh Films set in the 1990s Films scored by Sukhwinder Singh Films shot in Andhra Pradesh Indian action thriller films Indian crime thriller films Indian crime drama films Indian political thriller films Indian political action films Indian avant-garde and experimental films Films about the caste system in India Films à clef