Daana Veera Soora Karna

Daana Veera Soora Karna is a 1977 Indian Telugu-language Hindu mythological film co-written, produced and directed by N. T. Rama Rao under his banner, Ramakrishna Cine Studios. Based on the life of Karna from the Mahabharata, it stars Rama Rao in three roles: the title character, Duryodhana, and Krishna. It also stars Rao's sons Nandamuri Harikrishna and Nandamuri Balakrishna, who play the roles of Arjuna and Abhimanyu, respectively. Music for the film was composed by Pendyala Nageswara Rao.

Made on a budget of ₹10 lakhs (one million Indian rupees), the film was a commercial success and became the highest-grossing Telugu film at the time, grossing ₹1.5–2 crore (15–20 million rupees). It is regarded as one of the greatest films of Telugu cinema.

Plot
A baby has been rescued from the Ganga river by charioteer Adhiratha, who adopts the boy and names him Karna. Years later, Karna witnesses the scene of Dronacharya taking off Ekalavya 's thumb so that Arjuna could surpass him as an archer. At this injustice, Karna swears a rivalry against Arjuna.

Karna studies under Parasurama to become an expert archer. One day, Karna is bitten by Indra as an insect and bears the pain not to disturb a sleeping Parasurama. When Parasurama awakens and sees the blood, he believes Karna to be of the "kshatriya" caste and curses that his skills remain futile. Parasurama later recognizes Karna as Sutaputra, but cannot return his curse.

While traveling, Karna tries to save a Brahmin's cow from Indra in the form of a lion; he fails, and the Brahmin curses Karna to die in a helpless situation. Later, moved by a young girl's tears, Karna squeezes spilled "ghee" (butter) from the soil and Bhudevi curses him that his chariot wheel crushed into her in his last stage of life.

Dronacharya praises Arjuna for winning an archery tournament at the fort of Hastinapuram when Karna arrives to challenge him but is insulted due to his low birth. Duryodhana saves his pride by making him king of Anga, and Karna dedicates his life to Duryodhana, and they become soulmates. Dharmaraja invites Duryodhana to join, who suffers a series of misfortunes at the hands of Shakuni, which forces them into years of exile. Lord Krishna attempts to negotiate and reveals Karna's birth secret. Out of loyalty, Karna remains with Duryodhana while tensions escalate toward the Kurukshetra War with the Pandavas.

Chief military commander Bhishma insults Karna by recognizing him as "Ardharatha," and Karna swears not to enter the battlefield before Bhishma. Bhishma collapses as the war begins and makes a contrition to Karna on an arrow bed. Karna takes Bhishma's blessing and enters the battlefield. To protect the Pandavas' honor, Abhimanyu enters the battlefield and single-handedly defeats most of the army; to stop him, Duryodhana orders Karna to destroy his bow, after which Abhimanyu is overwhelmed and killed. That evening, Karna weeps over the body of his defeated adversary and declares that Abhimanyu is immortal, but he is the one who has perished.

The following day, Krishna sends Kunti to request Karna join the Pandavas or swear not to kill them. Karna blames Kunti, the mother who abandoned him, for the destruction but swears not to kill anyone except Arjuna on the condition that Kunti has five sons if either he or Arjuna dies. The next day on the battlefield, Karna tries to kill Arjuna, protected by Lord Krishna. He later defeats all the Pandavas after the deaths of his sons at their hands, but every time, he remembers his promise to Kunti and does not kill them. After sparing the Pandavas, he announces to Kunti in the middle of the battle that 'he had sacrificed his sons for hers.' Krishna sends Indra as a Brahim to trick Karna into giving up the divine breastplate that protects him. Karna does so, even knowing the truth, and Indra gifts him a powerful weapon for one-time use. While wishing to use it against Arjuna, Karna's situation forces him to use it when the camp is under attack that night.

The next day, Shalya, an uncle of the Pandavas, is appointed Karna's charioteer and demoralizes him on Krishna's instructions. The accumulated curses work together, and Karna collapses. Krishna explains Karna's glory to Arjuna, then appears to Karna as a Brahim begging for alms. Karna breaks out his golden tooth as a donation. Kunti arrives and declares Karna's birth secret, angering Dharmaraja, who curses the women against keeping secrets.

Karna dies in Kunti's lap, and his soul enters Surya, the Sun God. Duryodhana attempts to abandon the war to grieve, but Pandavas forces him back. He chooses his opponent to settle the war, but Krishna reveals Duryodhana's weak point, which, in a dishonorable manner, gets hit. As he dies, Duryodhana questions Krishna's piety. Duryodhana and Karna then meet in heaven, displaying an immortal friendship.

Cast

 * N. T. Rama Rao as Srikrishna, Karna, and Duryodhana
 * Nandamuri Balakrishna as Abhimanyu
 * Nandamuri Harikrishna as Arjuna
 * Satyanarayana as Bhima
 * S. Varalakshmi as Kunti
 * Gummadi as Parashurama
 * Dhulipala Seetarama Sastry as Shakuni
 * Mikkilineni as Bhishma
 * Mukkamala as Shalya
 * Rajanala as Drona
 * M. Prabhakar Reddy as Dharma Raju
 * P. J. Sarma as Vidura
 * Chalapathi Rao as Indra, Adhiratha, Jarasandha and Dhrishtadyumna
 * Jagga Rao as Dushasana
 * Jaya Bhaskar as Ekalavya and Surya
 * Sharada as Draupadi
 * Kanchana as Subhadra
 * B. Saroja Devi as Vrishali
 * Prabha as Bhanumati
 * Rajasree
 * Deepa as Uttara
 * Jayamalini as Dancer
 * Helen as Dancer

Chalapathi Rao performed four roles and also appeared in two other costumes as disguises of Indra, while Jaya Bhaskar did a dual role.

Production
Daana Veera Soora Karna was launched on 7 June 1976 at Ramakrishna Cine Studios, Hyderabad by M. G. Ramachandran who also clapped the first shot of the film. Ramarao initially wanted Akkineni Nageswara Rao to play the role of Krishna as he was already playing the roles of Suyodhana and Karna however Rao said that the "Pandavas should appear shorter when shown by his side, and that'd spoil the overall screen presence" so it was also portrayed as Ramarao. Kondaveeti Venkatakavi who was a principal of Sanskrit college was chosen to write the film's dialogues.

When Ramarao was planning this film, the same time Krishna planned to make Kurukshetra, another film based on Mahabharata which lead Ramarao to start this immediately with an intent to release the film on Sankranti sooner. The film was completely shot in 43 working days at Ramakrishna Cine Studios thus becoming the first film to be shot there.

Soundtrack
The music was composed by Pendyala Nageswara Rao.

S. Rajeswara Rao was initially the music director for the film, and set the songs "Ye Thalli Ninu Kannadho" and the verses were to music. The rest of the soundtrack was completed by Pendyala Nageswara Rao. However, the title card shows only Pendyala's name.

The film has ten songs and 35 verses. Most of the verses are taken from Paandavodyoga Vijayam and Sree Krishna Raayabaram by the poet duo Tirupati Venkata Kavulu. Pundareekakshayya secured the rights to use the verses when working on the film Sreekrishnaavataaram. They were sought for the competing film Kuruskshetram but Pundareekakshayya instead gave the rights to Rama Rao.

S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and Peesapati Raghuramayya sang initial versions of the Raayabaram verses, which were re-recorded by V. Ramakrishna.

Padmalaya Studios secured the rights of Ghantasala's Bhagavadgeeta audio after his death and used those verses in Kurukshetram, while DVS Karna used "prosaic" Bhagavadgeeta for the most part.

The dialogues of the film also became very popular, and were released as LP and audio cassettes by HMV.

Release
The film was approved by censors on 12 January 1977 and released on 14 January. Gemini film labs was unable to print all 30 orders of the film in the time available, so its premiered was limited to 14 cinemas on the day of its release. The film ran for 100 days in 9 cinemas and 250 days at the Hyderabad Shanti Theatre.

With a budget of less than ₹10 lakhs (one million Indian rupees), the film earned more than ₹1 crore (ten million rupees) in its first run. It was sold for ₹60 lakhs (6 million rupees) for a 1994 re-release, with 30 prints earning more than ₹1 crore.

It was the second Telugu film after Lava Kusa to gross ₹1 crore (ten million rupees) and the first Telugu film to collect ₹2 crores (with an average ticket price being ₹1 in 1977).

In the first twenty years after its release, the film sold the highest number of tickets, beating all the new releases for the year in 13 different years.

Awards

 * P. Susheela won Nandi Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song "Ye Thalli Ninu Kannado"