''Sye'' ( ) is a 2004 Indian Telugu-language

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

film directed by S. S. Rajamouli, who co-wrote the film with V. Vijayendra Prasad. The film is produced by A. Bharati under Sri Bharathi Enterprises. The film features Nithin, Genelia, Shashank and Pradeep Rawat. The story has a rugby backdrop. In the film, two rival groups in a college—Science led by Prudhvi and Arts led by Shashank—fight for superiority through the game of rugby, until a local gangster Bhikshu Yadav takes over their college. This was Rajamouli's third film post the successes of '' Student No: 1'' and '' Simhadri''. Music composed by M. M. Keeravani with cinematography by K. K. Senthil Kumar and editing by Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao. The film earned ₹11

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

in distributor share’s (US$2.4 million) against a production budget of ₹10.2 crore (US$1.5 million) and was commercially successful. The film won four

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 ...

Plot

Prudhvi (

Nithiin Nithin Kumar Reddy (born 30 March 1983), known professionally as Nithiin, is an Indian film actor, distributor and producer who primarily works in Telugu cinema, Telugu films. Nithiin is a recipient of several accolades including a Filmfare Awa ...

) and Shashank ( Shashank) are the leaders of two warring student groups in a Hyderabad college. Their rivalry is intense, marked by constant clashes and a fierce competition for dominance. They are fond of the game of rugby, and they sort things out issues between them by playing rugby to prove their superiority. Despite their differences, the groups share a deep love for their college, especially its vast playground, which is a hub of their activities. However, their lives take a drastic turn when a local mafia leader Bhikshu Yadav ( Pradeep Rawat) gets a court notice that he has purchased the college land from its legal heirs. Prudhvi and Sashank's groups unite and forget their mutual differences to win back the college. The students attack the political career of Bhikshu by posting fake posters of him in the streets. They go to his liquor shops and play dead to make it appear that the shops sold spurious poisonous liquor which killed the students. After getting affected by the student assaults, Bhikshu Yadav throws a challenge to defeat his team in a game of rugby to win back the land for their college. The condition is set: if the students win, Bhikshu will leave the land alone; if they lose, the land is his. The rest of the story is how Prudhvi leads his team to the victory.

Cast

as Prudhvi * Genelia as Indu * Shashank as Shashank * Rajiv Kanakala as Rugby coach Rafi, Qader's son * Pradeep Rawat as Bhikshu Yadav * Nassar as Qadar, college property owner *

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 ...

as Bhikshu Yadav's right hand and an advocate * Ajay as Bhikshu Yadav's henchman *

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 Prudhvi's father and college principal * Venu Madhav as Nalla Balu * S. S. Kanchi as Indu's father *

Preeti Nigam Preeti Nigam is an Indian television actress, known for her performances in Telugu-language serials. She has had a career spanning over two decades, with notable roles in both positive and negative characters. Her acting career began in the 1990 ...

as Prudhvi's mother * Swathi Katrapati as Venni, Indu's friend and Shani's girlfriend *

Supreeth Supreeth Reddy is an Indian actor who primarily acts in Telugu-language films. He is known for his roles in films like '' Chatrapathi'' and ''Maryada Ramanna''. He played villain and supporting roles. He also acted in the Hindi film '' Rowdy ...

as Bhikshu Yadav's henchmen * Madhunandan as College Student * Sameer as ACP Aravind * Surya as Pinganoori Panganamalu alias Ping Pong * Shravan as Chotu, Shashank's classmate * Natraj Master as Spare *

Sivannarayana Naripeddi Sivannarayana Naripeddi is an Indian actor who works in Telugu films and television. He is best known for his role as 'Appaji' in the popular Telugu TV sitcom '' Amrutham'' (20012007). He won the Nandi Award for Best Comedian for '' Ammamma.c ...

Narsing Yadav Narsing Yadav (15 May 1963 – 31 December 2020) was an Indian actor known for his comic villain roles. He acted in more than 300 films predominantly in Telugu, in addition to Tamil, Hindi and Kannada languages. He debuted as a small character ...

* Alapati Lakshmi ;Cameo appearance * S. S. Rajamouli as Nalla Balu's henchman

Production

and other actors underwent two months of rugby training.

Soundtrack

The film has six songs composed by M. M. Keeravani. The audio release function was held at the Taj Banjara hotel in Hyderabad.

Reception

A critic from ''

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 ...

'' opined that "Go ahead and enjoy and rugby game. ''Sye'' is a roller coaster ride of pure unadulterated masala". Jeevi of ''

Idlebrain Idlebrain.com is an Indian entertainment website dedicated to Telugu cinema. Established in 1999 by G. V. Ramana, popularly known as Jeevi, a graduate of BITS Pilani, the site is among the oldest websites on the Internet focused on Telugu fil ...

'' wrote, "Plus points of the film are Raja Mouli's stylish taking and MM Keeravani music. The main negative point in the film is failing in getting the emotions right till the climax of the film".

Box office

The film had a successful 365-day run at one center. It collected ₹11

share at box office.Chatrapati - Post mortem - Telugu cinema - SS Rajamouli - Prabhas, Shriya
. Idlebrain.com. Retrieved on 2020-05-25. ''Sye'' was the most expensive film in Rajamouli's career till 2004 as it was made with over ₹10 crore budget.

Recognition

In the lead up to the

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

, a video of the rugby scenes from ''Sye'' went viral. When Willie Hateraka, belonging to the Maori sect of New Zealand, working as the coach for Indian Army's Rugby team, saw the film ''Sye'', was so impressed with the movie that he recommended Rajamouli's name to the International Rugby Board as the director for their proposed

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

based on rugby, which never entered production. Hateraka, who couldn't even understand English properly nor the language of the film, connected to the film emotionally. The film went on to be one of the only 3 films that the Rugby Board found suitable as promotional material for the game of Rugby.

Awards

;

* Best Editor - Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao * Best Male Dubbing Artist - P. Ravi Shankar * Best Supporting Actor - Shashank * Best Villain - Pradeep Rawat ;

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 ...

* Filmfare Best Villain Award (Telugu) - Pradeep Rawat (2004)

Notes

References

External links

* {{S. S. Rajamouli 2000s Indian films 2000s sports films 2000s Telugu-language films 2004 action films 2004 films Films directed by S. S. Rajamouli Films scored by M. M. Keeravani Films set in Hyderabad, India Films shot in Hyderabad, India Indian action films Indian sports films Rugby union films Rugby union in India Sports action films Telugu films remade in other languages