Bhaagamathie

Bhaagamathie is a 2018 Indian horror thriller film written and directed by G. Ashok. The film stars Anushka in the title role while Jayaram (in his Telugu debut), Unni Mukundan, Murali Sharma, and Asha Sarath play other pivotal roles. Shot simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil, the film revolves around a former district collector imprisoned in a haunted house. At the same time, she is interrogated by law enforcers investigating a politician they suspect of corruption. Principal photography commenced in June 2016 in Hyderabad, and the film was released on 26 January 2018 in Telugu and Tamil along with a dubbed Malayalam version. The film is a commercial success, grossing over ₹26 crore. With Bhaagamathie, Anushka Shetty emerged as the second Indian actress after Sridevi to have a $1 million grossed at the US box office. The film was remade in Hindi as Durgamati (2020).

Plot
In Hyderabad, Home Minister Eshwar Prasad vows to resign from his post if the government fails to recover idols that were stolen over a period of six months. This troubles his political rivals, who forge a plan to destroy his credibility with the help of CBI Joint Director Vaishnavi Natarajan and ACP Sampath. The two plan to interrogate DC and Eshwar's close confidate Chanchala Reddy, who is in jail for murdering her fiancé Shakthi, Sampath's brother. To avoid attention, they shift her to Bhaagamathie bungalow, a dilapidated, supposedly haunted house on the outskirts of a village which was ruled by a Queen named Bhaagamathie before independence, for the interrogation. Vaishnavi interrogates Chanchala to get some clues against Eshwar, but she repeats that they are doubting his integrity without any proof in a cryptic but leading manner.

Later that night, Bhaagamathie's spirit, takes control of Chanchala. The CBI team calls upon a psychiatrist to investigating the matter, who concludes that Chanchala must be schizophrenic as she seems to take on a different persona and narrate some story from a book as if it were her own. As the story goes, Queen Bhaagamathie was the princess who fought the Nawab when the Dynasty of king Devraj had no sons and was invaded by the Nawabs. She came across Chandrasenan, a man who pretended to be nice and was given the position of general by the people. He showed his true colours when he got the post. He looted money, land and even god. He then spread rumors that Bhaagamathie was mad and made her a prisoner in her own chamber. Unable to bear this, Bhaagamathie committed suicide. The psychiatrist suggests that the CBI commit her to an asylum.

However, Sampath suspects that this might be a ploy by her to escape and arranges for a spiritual guru to find out if there is paranormal activity. The guru suggests a few indicators. Later, Sampath discovers that those indicators to indicate the presence of ghosts in the bungalow. He also finds Chanchala hurting herself under the influence of the ghost. This leads to Sampath taking Chanchala to a mental asylum. Eshwar visits her at the mental asylum, where it is revealed that Chanchala had planned the entire thing to escape the CBI in return for inr 3000000000 kickback from Eshwar. It is also revealed that Eshwar had forced Chanchala to kill Shakthi, threatening to kill the villagers involved in a welfare project to hide his scam.

Meanwhile, Vaishnavi realizes that Chanchala was trying to convey the truth of Eshwar's crimes using the story of Queen Bhaagamathie, which she came across from the various writings and artifacts that she had discovered in the bungalow. She also finds evidence of Eshwar's misdeeds and the site where he hid the villagers after killing Shakthi. When Eshwar finds out that he is exposed, he is killed by Sampath, who discovered the truth that Chanchala didn't murder Shakthi. Thus vindicated, Chanchala is seen running a charity organization in Shakthi's memory. Vaishnavi tells her that they thought they knew everything about her but never knew that she was a great magician in her childhood and that she knew Arabic. Chanchala replies by saying that she does not know Arabic, which shocks them, hinting that there was actual paranormal activity in the house.

Cast

 * Anushka as Bhaagamathie / Chanchala IAS (Sanchala IAS in Tamil version)
 * Jayaram as Home Minister Eshwar Prasad, the main antagonist
 * Unni Mukundan as Shakthi
 * Asha Sarath as Vaishnavi Natarajan, Joint Director, CBI
 * Murali Sharma as ACP Sampath IPS, Shakthi's elder brother
 * Dhanraj as Lingamurthy (Lingasamy in Tamil)
 * Prabhas Sreenu as Subba Reddy
 * Thalaivasal Vijay as Psychiatrist
 * Vidyullekha Raman as Police Sub-Inspector
 * Nagineedu as CBI Officer
 * Madhunandan as CBI Officer
 * Devadarshini as Kanchana
 * Surya as CBI Officer
 * Ravi Raja Maguluri as Ajay
 * Appaji Ambarisha Darbha as Corporate CEO
 * Ajay Ghosh as Jose

Development
G. Ashok, who had previously worked on Pilla Zamindar (2011) and Sukumarudu (2013), readied the Bhaagamathie script in 2012 and had written it keeping Anushka Shetty in mind. In late 2012, the team approached Anushka, and the actress liked the script but was not able to immediately commit to the film, as she had pending projects such as Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Rudhramadevi (2015), where she also played warrior princesses. The film was later delayed when Anushka chose to star in Lingaa (2014), attempt an ambitious size-shifting role in Size Zero (2015) and complete her portions for Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017). Ashok subsequently chose to wait for her, rather than cast a new actress and refined the script during the waiting period. Early media reports claimed that the film would be based on the queen Bhagmati, but the makers denied this and revealed that the film would be a "social drama".

Filming
Principal photography commenced in June 2016 in Hyderabad. The film's title is derived from the Bagmati river that flows through Nepal, while Ashok also stated that the titled was also inspired by the fact that Hyderabad was formed in the name of Bhagamathi or Bhagi Nagara. Once she began working on the film in 2016, she shed 20 kilograms through a rigorous diet plan to portray her character of an IAS Officer. Produced by UV Creations in Telugu and released by Studio Green in Tamil. A dubbed Malayalam version of the film was also prepared to have a simultaneous release with the other two versions.

Soundtrack
The film's music was composed by S. Thaman.

The song "Mandaara" was released as single from the album of Bhaagamathie on 19 December 2016 on the YouTube page of Mango Music, UV Creations. The song was sung by Geetha Madhuri. The music video of the track features Anushka Shetty and Unni Mukundan. On the same day of release, it was made available for online streaming at Saavn, Gaana and iTunes. The Tamil version of the song, lyrics by Vivek and sung by Jyotsna Radhakrishnan, was released at a function held by Studio Green in Chennai, which marked four significant events for the producers — the audio launch of Bhaagamathie, a single launch of Iruttu Araiyil Murattu Kuththu (2018), a single launch of Ghajinikanth (2018) and the success meet for Thaanaa Serndha Koottam (2018).


 * Telugu


 * Tamil

Critical reception
Firstpost rated the film 3.5/5, stating "Bhaagamathie is an impressive outing for the whole cast and crew, and it's also a reminder for us that there are plenty of ways to narrate a story despite having a dilapidated house, a ghost, a hapless young woman, and a gut-wrenching backstory. A big thumbs up for the film."

Bollywood Life also rated it 3.5/5 and stated, "This is definitely worth a watch. For Anushka Shetty. For the story. and for the two combined."

123Telugu rated it 3.25/5, writing "On the whole, Bhaagamathie is an engaging thriller with good horror and interesting twists at regular intervals. Anushka leads from the front and will surely pull the crowds with her standout performance. The film is made on a lavish scale, and because of this, the thrills look quite good on screen. But the story is familiar, and the first half gets a bit slow. If you ignore these aspects, Bhaagamathie ends up a pretty decent watch this weekend. Go for it."

Idlebrain.com rated it 3/5, writing, "Bhaagamathie is a kind of film that’s difficult make and difficult to position in Telugu market. Director and production house have packaged the film in such a way that it partly satisfies the people who look for horror elements and the audiences who seek a thrill. Despite having a complicated screenplay, Bhaagamathie tries to give something for everybody. Plus points of the film are Anushka, screenplay and background music. On the flip side, the narration should have been true to its genre. On the whole, Bhaagamathie is a well-packaged thriller."

Hindustan Times also rated it 3/5 and wrote, "The film draws inspiration from history and adds a dash of supernatural to serve us a crime thriller. After the trailer, many believed that this could be a redux of Anushka’s claim to fame, Arundhati. Instead, G Ashok turns it into a riveting thriller that works wonders despite its flaws. You are on the edge of your seat through most of the film, trying to understand if Chanchala is possessed or not."

Box office
The film collected close to inr 500000000 at the worldwide box office. It collected inr 360000000 in the first weekend and inr 155000000 on the weekdays at the worldwide box office. The film collected inr 515000000 at first week.