Kathanayakudu (2008 film)

Kathanayakudu
Directed by	P. Vasu
Produced by	G. P. Vijay Kumar Ashwini Dutt
Written by	Sreenivasan P. Vasu Marudhuri Raja
Starring	Rajnikanth Meena Nayanthara Jagapati Babu Sunil Brahmanandam
Music by	G. V. Prakash Kumar
Cinematography	Arvind Krishna
Editing by	Saravana
Distributed by	Ayngaran (Worldwide) Pyramid Saimira (U.S.)
Release dates	August 1, 2008 (2008-08-01)
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Kathanayakudu (Telugu: కథానాయకుడు) is a 2008 Telugu drama film directed by P. Vasu, which was simultaneously made in Tamil as Kuselan. Both remake the Malayalam film Kadha Parayumbol; the film is directed by P. Vasu and produced by Aswani Dutt and G. P. Vijayakumar in two languages. Kuselan stars Jagapati Babu in the lead role paired opposite Meena. Rajinikanth and Nayantara appear in extended cameo roles.

The film revolves around a villager, who had shared a strong friendship with a popular cinema actor in their youth. However due to their different pursuit in careers they eventually are forced to part ways, one becoming a national figure, the other, a village barber. Decades later, the actor returns to the village to participate in his film's shooting. Whilst the entire village become excited about the prospect of seeing the actor, the barber fears that his old friend would have forgotten him and would neglect him. The story explores the pressures of friendship.

Plot

An emotional tale, the story is about two childhood friends Balakrishna (Jagapathi Babu) and Ashok Kumar (Rajinikanth). Balu does not stop at anything to make his friend feel happy. As time passes by, they take different paths and Balu becomes a barber in a small village called Siricilla. He gets married to Devi (Meena) and has three children and leads a happy life. However, his finances are dry and he is often led to the door of Dharmaraju (Dharmavarapu), the financier. On the other hand, Balu has tough competition from the more smart and clever Kantha Rao (Sunil) who has a saloon right opposite to his shop. Balu is a man with self-respect and honesty. His life continues to roll until one day there is news that a film shooting is going to happen in a place near their village and the hero of the film is Superstar Ashok Kumar (Rajinikanth). The news spreads like wildfire and Balu knows this but hesitates to show himself as a friend of Ashok Kumar. On the other hand, folks around get to know the friendship of Balu and Ashok Kumar and in this process those who have been ridiculing him start doing favors for him only with the intention of meeting Ashok Kumar or at least watching him from outside. But hesitant Balu is unable to do what they want and soon people start shunning him, even his own children start showing anger towards him.

Development

Following P. Vasu and Rajinikanth's film, Chandramukhi in 2005, Vasu had been keen to re-cast Rajnikanth in another role and, before signing Kuselan, he had narrated a story titled Vettaiyan, which would have been a sequel of a character featured in Chandramukhi.^[1] Early in 2008, Rajnikanth signed up for S. Shankar's Enthiran, while Kathanayakudu was launched at the Taj Coromandel in Chennai on 14 January 2008 coinciding with Pongal. The director, P. Vasu signed up Rajnikanth and Jagapathi Babu to portray the lead roles, while director K. Balachander agreed to produce the Tamil version of the film along with G.P. Vijayakumar's Seven Arts Productions, while Aswani Dutt agreed to produce the film in Telugu.^[2] The film is a remake of the Malayalam movie, Kadha Parayumbol which was written by Sreenivasan who also played the lead role in the movie. The shooting lasted 82 days with the versions being shot simultaneously and that most of the movie was shot inside the Ramoji Rao film city, with other destinations including Kerala and Pollachi. The promotional event took place on 19 July 2008 at the Jawarhalal Nehru Stadium.^[3]

Vasu made it clear that Rajinikanth would not be doing an honorary role in the film, which Mammooty had portrayed in the original, but will play a full role, describing that "the whole story revolves around him [Rajnikanth]". The film's launch was halted on 7 March 2008 at the AVM Studios in Chennai with the leading artistes present.^[4] P. Vasu, while talking to the media mentioned that the shooting lasted 82 days with the versions being shot simultaneously and that most of the movie was shot inside the Ramoji Rao film city, with other destinations including Kerala and Pollachi.^[5]

Cast

The lead cast in the bilingual (Tamil/Telugu) included:^[6]

• Jagapati Babu as Balakrishna. Balakrishna, more commonly referred to as Bala is a village barberer. He lives care-free with his wife and three children despite his financial struggles. His salon fails to earn profits ude to his reluctance to take in assistance from others. Balan has a dilemma when his old friend Ashok Kumar returns to the village.
• Meena as Sreedevi. Sreedevi is the wife of Bala, who is commonly known for being rather boisterous and open hearted despite her poor state of living. She shares great affection for her husband despite the villagers' hate towards him.
• Rajinikanth as Ashok Kumar. Ashok Kumar is dubbed as the "superstar" in South Indian cinema, who comes to the village to participate in his film's shooting. The arrival of him prompts the villagers' excitement, with all of them wanting to see the superstar.
• Nayantara as Nayantara. Nayantara is the co-star to Ashok Kumar in the film under production in the village.
• Sunil as Shanmugam. Shanmugam is an opposition barberer in the village, whose business revenues more profit than Balan. Provides comic relief in the film.

Casting

In the Telugu version, comedy actors Sunil, Brahmanandam, Tanikella Bharani and Venu Madhav all signed up to play the roles of Jagapati Babu's fellow villagers.^[7] Ileana D'Cruz turned down an offer to act in the film, citing date problems.^[8] Like the Tamil version, it was said that several prominent Telugu actors had been approached to be a part of a song in the project, but none were selected.^[9][10]

Technicians were common in both versions in the two films with G. V. Prakash Kumar operating as the music composer, whilst Arvind Krishna was the cinematographer for the bilingual.^[11]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Kathanayakudu was released on 30 June 2008. The soundtrack consists of five songs. The song Cinema Cinema commemorates the 75th anniversary of Telugu cinema. N. T. Rama Rao, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, M. G. Ramachandran and Rajkumar are shown in this song.^[12]

References

External links

• Film's official website
• Kathanayakudu's Film At Basthi.com