Rabhasa () is a 2014 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film written and directed by Santosh Srinivas. It was produced by Bellamkonda Suresh and Bellamkonda Ganesh Babu for Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Productions and stars Jr NTR, Samantha, Pranitha Subhash and Brahmanandam while Nassar, Jayasudha, Raghu Babu and Sayaji Shinde play supporting roles. S. Thaman composed the music for the film. While Shyam K. Naidu handled the cinematography; Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao provided the editing and the Art Director by A. S. Prakash for the film.
The story revolves around US return student Karthik, who pledges to marry his uncle Dhanunjay's daughter Indu, which was his mother's wish. A small family feud ends with both the families getting separated. He joins Indu's college to convince her to marry him but mistakenly assumes Bhagyam is Dhanunjay's daughter. Later, Karthik realizes that Indu is his cousin, but she is already in love with another man. He gets entangled in a risky situation when he tries to help a stranger. The rest of the story is all about how he controls the damage and fulfills the wish of his mother.
The film was launched on 13 February 2013 in Hyderabad. The principal photography started on 2 August 2013 at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad. The majority of the film was shot in Annapoorna Studios, Ramanaidu Studios, Ramoji Film City, and the outskirts and suburbs of Hyderabad, while substantial parts of the film were shot in Jaipur and Pollachi. After shooting a song in Switzerland, the film's shooting came to an end on 23 July 2014 in Hyderabad. Director V. V. Vinayak provided voice-overs for a few sequences in the film.
The film released in theaters worldwide on 29 August 2014, the eve of Vinayaka Chathurthi, to mixed reviews from critics, with most of them labelling it as a regular mass film. The film was a commercial failure.
Plot Karthik & Kishore returns to India after completing his graduation in the United States, and his mother decides to have him marry her brother Dhanunjay's daughter Indu. When Karthik's father goes to Dhanunjay's house to ask the same, he gets insulted. Dhanunjay plans to be a mayor and Karthik decides to teach him a lesson and marry his daughter. Firstly, he kills the possibilities of Dhanunjay becoming a mayor. Later he joins Indu's college to somehow convince her for the marriage, where he encounters Bhagyam who falls in love with him whom he misunderstood as Dhanunjay's daughter. Conflicts arise between Karthik and Indu. By the time he learns that Indu is his cousin and not Bhagyam, he has broken up with Bhagyam because of Indu & Upendra’s revenge.
Karthik ends up challenging Dhanunjay & Yeddula, who then approaches a gangster with Raghava & Obul Reddy. Indu acts as if she loves Karthik & Shrinivas so that she can escape from there and find her lover whom she never saw. That person helped her friend elope with her lover on the night of her marriage and neither Indu nor that person knows each other's features and looks. On seeing Karthik's photograph, Obul Reddy asks his whereabouts as he was that person who helped his brother's fiancée who actually was Indu's friend who eloped with her lover that night. Meanwhile, Karthik and Indu escape from there and on learning her love story, Karthik decides to help her and gives up his word given to his mother. Meanwhile, Karthik saves Peddi Reddy from Gangi Reddy's men and Indu poses as Karthik's lover who eloped with him as her parents did not approve their marriage and also a gangster is looking for them. As an act of gratitude, Peddi Reddy takes them to their house where they are kept in safe custody. But shockingly they find out that Obul Reddy is Peddi Reddy's son and Indu's friend actually was Gangi Reddy's daughter.
The person who helped Gangi Reddy's daughter that night from her marriage was Karthik himself and he is unaware that the person who spoke to him in a phone to help that girl was Indu. Indu is unaware that Karthik, & Raghava was that person whom she loves. Dhanunjay uses this situation and introduces Nandu as that person who actually is the son of a rich millionaire with whom Indu's marriage was planned by him. Obul Reddy and his brothers bring a liar named Raju and misrepresent him as the person who helped the bride run away that night. But he is not killed instantly as the bridegroom, Obul Reddy's brother Bulli Reddy who is in a coma due to Karthik, has to kill him once he recuperates. He is cheated on several occasions by Karthik, who meanwhile manages to create a good impression in Indu when he unites Gangi Reddy and Peddi Reddy, thus rescheduling the marriages, and saves Nandu from Peddi Reddy when he broke the house's ancestral statue by taking the blame himself. Indu proposes Karthik to marry her and declares that she cannot live without him.
But he is not in a position to accept her proposal as Dhanunjay warned him before that if he makes Indu fall in love, he would reveal that Karthik helped Gangi Reddy's daughter to escape thus breaking the newly formed bond between the two families. Thus he rejects her proposal and sacrifices his love for the welfare of the two families. After an unexpected fight with Obul Reddy, Karthik is confronted by Peddi Reddy and Gangi Reddy, who now know the truth. They forgive him and the marriage of Peddi Reddy's daughter happens as scheduled, with Karthik and Indu getting married in the presence of their parents on the same day at the same venue. The families of Gangi Reddy and Peddi Reddy are united and all are happy.
Cast
Production
Development After the film Kandireega became a critical and commercial success at the box office, it prompted the makers to make a sequel. Thus they wanted to sign the protagonist of Kandireega, Ram and actress Shruti Haasan to play the lead roles in the sequel during the pre-release time of Ram's Endukante... Premanta!. However, reports emerged that N. T. Rama Rao Jr. would replace Ram in Kandireega 2. Later the makers officially confirmed that the film was shelved and they decided to make a film with N. T. Rama Rao Jr. in the direction of Santosh Srinivas and Samantha Ruth Prabhu was selected as the heroine, who too signed a three-film-deal contract with Suresh with Jabardasth being the first one and this film being the second. The film was titled Rabhasa and it was said that it was a film in city backdrop and is not the sequel to Kandireega. The film was launched at Hyderabad on 13 February 2013. N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Santosh Srinivas, Bellamkonda Suresh, Bellamkonda Ganesh Babu and others attended the film's launch. Later in September 2013, it was reported that the film's title had been changed as the makers felt that the title Rabhasa didn't suit the film's story. It was also reported that the film was titled as Joru.
However, in December 2013, Bellamkonda Suresh confirmed that Rabhasa was the working title of the film and added that he would announce the official title later. At the end of January 2014, it was reported that Koratala Siva was directing a part of the film since Santosh Srinivas was suffering from jaundice. The announcement of Koratala Siva and N. T. Rama Rao Jr.'s film in early November 2013 added fuel to the rumors. However, in early February 2014, Koratala Siva clarified to the media that he was not directing Rabhasa, was not a part of the film in any way, and was busy with other projects. At the end of April 2014, it was said that the selection of title might take some time as the makers had a strong belief in numerology, making it an important basis for the title selection. However, in early May 2014, the title Rabhasa was registered by the producers. Santosh Srinivas later revealed that he had received a few suggestions from N. T. Rama Rao Jr. for improvements to the script. In late August 2014, Telugu director V. V. Vinayak provided voice-overs for a few sequences in the film.
Casting
N. T. Rama Rao Jr. was signed on to play the main protagonist. It was stated that he would play a role of 4 shades, one of them being a playboy and another being a responsible family member. To complement the role, it was reported that N. T. Rama Rao Jr. would undergo a style makeover with a different hairdo as one of them. It was stated that Santosh wanted to change the hairdo of N. T. Rama Rao Jr. to make it one of the differentiating factors in the film. Samantha Ruth Prabhu was selected as the heroine of the film, marking her third collaboration with N. T. Rama Rao Jr. after Brindavanam and Ramayya Vasthavayya. It was reported that she would sport a bikini in the film, to which she responded that it was just a rumor but she added that she didn't mind being glamorous.
It was reported that prominent Tamil actress Nazriya Nazim was recruited to play one of the main characters, thus marking her Telugu debut. However, it was reported that Nazriya Nazim backed out of the film due to creative differences with the producers. Sources added that Nazriya was not comfortable to participate in a shoot of intimate scenes and the director's decision not to remove those scenes from the film made her walk out from the film. When questioned, Nazriya responded that they all were rumors and she wasn't approached by any producer for a Telugu film. Pranitha Subhash, who rose to fame with Trivikram Srinivas's directorial Attarintiki Daredi, was signed in as the other heroine of the film. Coincidentally, both of them were the lead actresses in Attarintiki Daredi.
Santosh added that she would portray the role of a typical Andhrite girl and that her role was a vital one in the film. However, it was also said that there would be no combination scenes of Pranitha Subhash and Samantha Ruth Prabhu in the film. Sources added that Pranitha Subhash would appear in the second half possibly while Samantha Ruth Prabhu would appear in the first half of the film. But in early February 2014, the above news was reported to be false. As per production sources, it was said that N. T. Rama Rao Jr. would have a romantic track with both the heroines in the film and the second half would have some nice scenes between the three actors; they added that Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Pranitha Subhash would be fighting with each other for the hero in this film.
Since early March 2014, it was reported that Malayalam actor Mohanlal would have a prominent cameo in the film, marking his return to Telugu cinema after a cameo appearance in Gandeevam, which had released in 1994. However, when contacted, the source close to the development said, "The news is fake and Mohanlal is not doing any role in Rabhasa". At the end of April 2014, Brahmaji said in an interview to a leading daily that he was playing a negative character in the film. In early May, it was confirmed that the film was going to feature N. T. Rama Rao Jr. in two very different ways and one of them would be a hilarious one. In mid-June 2014, it was reported that N. T. Rama Rao Jr. had choreographed the introduction song in the film. The same was confirmed by Santosh Srinivas in mid-July 2014.
Filming