Socio-fantasy films always have a lot of fanfare in Tollywood, whatever the season may be. In lines with this, ‘Damarukam’ is done with King Nagarjuna, who is attempting a film in this genre for the first time in his career. Director Srinivas Reddy, who already tasted success through a socio-fantasy film ‘Yamagola Malli Modalaindi’ says that he has crafted ‘Damarukam’ with a really incredible fantasy story that will grip the audience as they watch it. ‘Damarukam’ is loosely based on ‘The Immortals of Meluha’, the first novel of Shiva trilogy series written by Amish Tripathi.
Nagarjuna has played in a variety of roles ranging from action-oriented, romantic, drama, to historical and portrayed Shirdi Sai Baba in his recently released devotional movie ‘Shirdi Sai’ directed by K Raghavendra Rao. This multi-genre actor is now coming up with a socio-fantasy ‘Damarukam’, which may be one of the best films on the list of his films. As per some unconfirmed sources Nagarjuna will be seen as an auto-driver in this film.
On the other hand, Anushka Shetty comes from a non-film background, but the actress has always exuded dignity and grace right from beginning of her career and carved a niche for herself as one of the best and most versatile actresses on silver screen. Now this tall, dusky and sexy flavour is ready to sizzle on silver screen alongside handsome hunk Nagarjuna for the fourth consecutive time. It’s learnt that Anushka plays a meaty historical role with super-natural powers in this film.
Item song is like a dessert during a meal. So ‘Damarukam’ also has an interesting item song ‘Sakkubhai…’ performed by Charmy and Nagarjuna. Earlier the makers have considered Lakshmi Rai for it; however Charmy grabbed the opportunity later. While she enjoyed sharing screen space with Nag in ‘Mass’ and ‘Ragada’ as one of the leading ladies, this time is confined to an item song only.
This movie was filmed at loveliest locations in Switzerland, at elegant ancient temples in Andhra-Karnataka border, on lavish sets in Annapurna Studios, Ramanaidu Studios and Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. The visual effects were also done at Ramoji Film City. Fire Fly Company, known for its outstanding works in ‘Arundhati’ and ‘Magadheera’, has worked on the special effects for this film too. Veligonda Srinivas provided the story; screenplay and direction were handled by Srinivas Reddy and editing was done by Gautham Raju and not to forget the lavish sets designed by art director Ashok.
K Atchi Reddy is going to present this RR Movie Makers’ prestigious movie on Macs India Productions Pvt Ltd. Bellamkonda Suresh bagged the Vizag rights of this movie while Vyshnavi Films is all set to release the movie at overseas.
Highlights: Nag and Anushka promise the incredible onscreen chemistry that they smoldered in quite a few films before. The movie is also renowned for its strong background score and songs by Devisri Prasad apart from fantastic camera work from Chota K Naidu. The audio of the introduction song ‘Sakkubhai’ was an instant hit. And fans are sure to enjoy Nag and Charmy’s sizzling dance movements in theatres. Romantic songs shot on Nag and Anushka at beautiful locations in Switzerland under Prem Rakshit’s choreography would be feast to audience’s eyes. ‘Damarukam’ also marks Devisri Prasad’s 50th film and there are altogether 10 songs in it. The audio and trailers already received super response from the movie goers. Producer Venkat also claims that ‘Damarukam’, with most expensive computer graphics ever made and VFX for over 70 minutes will be one of the all time classics of the socio-fantasy film genre.
Besides the reputed technicians, what is needed for a big film is the huge star cast. Hence RR Movie Makers decided not to compromise in featuring an all-star cast including Nagarjuna, Anushka, Prakash Raj, Ganesh Venkatraman, Sonu Sood, Pradeep Rawath, Brahmanandam, M S Narayana, Aali, Ahuti Prasad, Krishna Bhagawan, Venu Madhav, Raghu Babu, Jeeva and Charmy, in order to provide wholesome entertainment.
Made with a budget of Rs 40 crores or above, ‘Damarukam’ highlights so many elements mentioned above. Now we have to wait till October 19th to see if it makes an impressive performance at the box-office and break all records in 2012.
