Dammu

Dammu is a 2012 Indian Telugu-language action drama film written and directed by Boyapati Srinu. The film stars N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Trisha, Karthika Nair, Nassar, Sampath Raj, Rahul Dev, Kishore, Suman, Brahmanandam, Ali, Bhanupriya, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Venu Thottempudi.

Dammu was released theatrically on 27 April 2012 and received mixed to negative reviews from critics who praised cast performance and action sequences, but criticized its screenwriting and excessive violence. Despite being an average grosser at the box office, it was unofficially remade in Bengali (Bangladesh) as Rajababu - The Power starring Shakib Khan, Apu Biswas and Bobby. The film was dubbed into Tamil titled Singamagan.

Plot
Rama Chandra is an orphan who leads a simple life along with his friend. He falls in love with Sathya, who is a rich girl. Sathya imposes a condition that Rama Chandra's family history should be important. At this very moment, Rama Chandra learns that a rich and powerful royal Suryavamsi family seeks to adopt an heir, where he seizes the chance. Rama Chandra goes there and realizes that Suryavamsi family has a violent past and a bitter dispute with another rich and powerful royal Chandravamsi family headed by a Chandravamsi King and also realizes that thousands of people in the area are now dependent on him for their very survival. Rama Chandra also discovers that he is actually the real heir to the family. Despite his hatred towards violence, Rama Chandra tries his best to solve the problems peacefully, but the rival gang does not give him a chance. Vexed with the violence, Rama Chandra nearly kills the Chandravamsi King's eldest son and kills King's youngest son, where he opens the Chandravamsi King's eyes by placing a sword on his middle son. Chandravamsi King realizes that his mistakes and apologizes to Rama Chandra and the family, thus ending the violent nature of the village.

Cast

 * Jr. NTR as Rama Chandra / Raja Vasireddy Vijayadwaja Srisimha
 * Trisha as Sathya
 * Karthika Nair as Neelaveni
 * Nassar as Chandravamsi King
 * Brahmanandam as Jaanaki
 * Bhanupriya as Rama Chandra's mother
 * Venu Thottempudi as Rama Chandra's brother-in-law
 * Abhinaya as Rama Chandra's elder sister #1
 * Hari Teja as Rama Chandra's elder sister #2
 * Chitralekha as Rama Chandra's elder sister #3
 * Suman as Suryavamsi King/Raja Surya Pratap Singh
 * Kota Srinivasa Rao as Raja of Veera Durgam Fort
 * Ahuti Prasad as Neelaveni's father
 * Ali as Rama Chandra's friend
 * Rahul Dev as Police Officer
 * Sampath Raj as Chandravamsi King's elder son
 * Kishore as Chandravamsi King's second son
 * Sridhar Rao as Chandravamsi King's third son
 * Tanikella Bharani as Head Priest
 * Chalapathi Rao as Krishnam Raju
 * Subhalekha Sudhakar as Sathya's father
 * Prabhakar as Chandravamsi King's henchmen
 * Snigdha as Sathya's friend
 * Kolla Ashok Kumar as Rama Chandra's servant
 * Chatrapathi Sekhar
 * Prasad Babu
 * Rahul Mahajan (uncredited appearance)
 * Maryam Zakaria as item number

Production
Dammu has music scored by M. M. Keeravani. Shruti Hassan, who was originally signed to play the female lead, walked out citing date issues. Later the producers approached Kajal Aggarwal who also couldn't accommodate bulk dates for the film. The producers finalised Trisha as the first female lead. According to reports, Bhanupriya, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Venu Thottempudi and Subhalekha Sudhakar play supporting roles.

Release
The Telugu and Tamil versions released on 27 April 2012. Dammu released on approximately 2550 screens worldwide which was a record in Tollywood. It released in approx of 140+ theatres in Karnataka which is considered to be a record by out of state movie.

Critical reception
B.V.S. Prakash of Deccan Chronicle wrote "Dammu (Valour), as one of the Telugu films that made high on action and low on contents". Sify wrote "Boyapati uses the same formula of Tollywood action movies with good dialogues, high voltage fight sequences and wraps ups with interesting twist and NTR's charged up performance".

Mahesh K. S. of 123Telugu gave 3.25 out of 5 stars and wrote "‘Dhammu’ will work well with fans and mass movie lovers. We have seen a highly charged performance from Tarak after a long time and he carries the film completely on his shoulders. Good action sequences, dialogues and sentiment will work well at the Box office. On the flip side, tempo goes down a bit in the second half and care should have been taken here." Radhika Rajamani of Rediff gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Director Boyapati Seenu's new film Dammu has an outdated and clichéd storyline, regressive content, and mindless and excessive violence".

Domestic
Dammu earned a total share of ₹8.04 crore on its opening day at the AP+Nizam box office which was an all time record day 1 opening. It earned a share of ₹14.31 in its opening weekend in AP+Nizam. Within 1 week, the film grossed over ₹20.8 crore at the AP+Nizam box office and ₹23.9 in India. In 10 days, it collected a share of ₹27.65 crore at the domestic box office out of which ₹24.1 crore came from AP+Nizam alone. In 2 weeks, the film collected a share of ₹29.95 crore domestically. By the end of its theatrical run, Dammu collected a total share of ₹29.25 at the AP+Nizam box office and additional ₹3.95 crore from ROI for a total share of ₹33.20 crore in India.

Overseas
Dammu earned a total share of ₹1.80 crore at the overseas market.

Pre-release revenues
After selling distribution and satellite rights, the film earned pre-release revenue up to inr 450000000.

Home media
The satellite and digital rights were sold to Zee Telugu and ZEE5 for inr 66000000, the highest buy-over for any film in 2012. The VCDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs of the film were released through Bhavani Company into the market on 10 August 2012, six days after completing 100 days in theatres.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the film was released on 29 March 2012 at Shilpakala Vedika in Hyderabad. M. M. Keeravani's music label, Vel Records, and Sony Music Entertainment secured the film's audio rights. The lyrics for all the songs were written by Chandrabose.