Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo () is a 2020 Indian Telugu-language action drama film written and directed by Trivikram Srinivas. It was produced by Allu Aravind and S. Radha Krishna under their banners Geetha Arts and Haarika & Hassine Creations, respectively. The film stars Allu Arjun and Pooja Hegde alongside a supporting cast of Jayaram, Tabu, Sushanth, Nivetha Pethuraj, Murali Sharma, Sachin Khedekar, Samuthirakani, Navdeep, Sunil, Harsha Vardhan, and Govind Padmasoorya. It follows Bantu, a young man who endured criticism from his father his whole life. His world is turned upside down upon discovering that he was the real son of a millionaire switched at birth.
Production of the film began in April 2019, and wrapped up in December 2019. It was filmed across Hyderabad, with songs being shot overseas. The film's soundtrack was composed by Thaman S, while cinematography and editing were handled by P. S. Vinod and Naveen Nooli, respectively. After premiering in the United States on 11 January 2020, the film was released theatrically on 12 January, coinciding with Sankranti.
Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo received positive reviews, with praise for performances of the cast, Thaman's music, entertainment value, and Trivikram's writing and direction. It was commercially successful and grossed 262–280 crores worldwide becoming the fourth highest-grossing Telugu film of all time at the time of its release (behind the Baahubali series and Saaho), third highest-grossing film in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (behind the Baahubali series) at the time of its release, highest-grossing Telugu film of 2020 and the second highest grossing Indian film of 2020. Thaman won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction. The film also won ten South Indian International Movie Awards including Best Film – Telugu. It also fetched the state Telangana Gaddar Film Award for Best Feature Film. A Hindi remake titled Shehzada was released on 17 February 2023.
Plot 1995: Valmiki and Ramachandra start their careers as clerks in Ananth Radhakrishna's (ARK)company. Ramachandra marries ARK's daughter Yasoda "Yasu" and becomes wealthy while Valmiki remains a middle class person. On the day of the birth of both their children, Ramachandra's son appears to be stillborn. When nurse Sulochana informs Valmiki about this, he offers to exchange his baby with the dead one.
After switching the babies, the child that appeared dead starts to cry; however, Valmiki wants his son to grow up in a rich household. When Sulochana tries to switch the babies again, Valmiki tries to stop her and accidentally pushes her. Sulochana falls from the hospital building and goes into a coma with Valmiki getting a cramp that slowly turns into a limp. Valmiki's son is named Raj. Valmiki names Ramachandra's son Bantu and treats him roughly due to his true parentage.
2020: After Valmiki refuses to pay for Bantu's MBA, Bantu goes to interview for a job at a travel company headed by Amulya aka Ammu, a self-made businesswoman. After a brief scuffle and misunderstanding with the company HR Shekhar, Bantu lands the job. Eventually, Bantu develops feelings for Ammu when he, Ammu, Shekhar, and their colleague Ravindra Reddy go to Paris for a business trip, and shortly after the trip, Ammu reciprocates his feelings.
Meanwhile, Raj returns from abroad, discontinuing his MBA. Ramachandra wants Raj to toughen up so he sends him to reject Paidithalli, the son of Appala Naidu, a wealthy, powerful and influential man who offers to buy 50% of their company's shares. Ramachandra watches the deal from the hotel where Ammu and Bantu have a meeting with Sudharshanam, the investor behind Ammu's firm, who wants to buyback Ammu's travel agency. Ramachandra is disappointed by Raj's hesitance and inability to say no to Paidithalli but is proud of Bantu and Ammu for saying no to Sudharshanam. Following this, Raj is engaged with Ammu on ARK's suggestion, even though Raj is already in love with his cousin Nandini "Nandu".
Appala Naidu attempts to kill Ramachandra for refusing to sell the shares minutes before Ammu and Bantu arrive to call off the marriage. Bantu saves Ramachandra by taking him to the hospital despite several attempts by Naidu's men to stop them. There he meets Sulochana, who comes out of her coma and reveals Bantu's true parentage. She passes away right after that. The furious Bantu slaps Valmiki. Bantu then manages to enter Ramachandra's house, named "Vaikuntapuram", by blackmailing Ramachandra's doctor. ARK takes an instant liking to him.
Bantu addresses the issues plaguing the house by patching up Ramachandra's broken relationship with Yasu (which was fragile, as Ramachandra had an affair once with a woman named Revathi seven years ago), settling the dispute with Paidathalli, and reforming the corrupt family members, Sitaram and Kashiram.
At a party thrown at their house, Yasu witnesses Bantu and Ammu kissing each other. Bantu is ousted out of the house by Valmiki while Ammu's engagement with Raj is cancelled. Naidu uses the situation to his advantage by kidnapping and threatening to kill Nandu unless Ramachandra gives the shares to Paidithalli. When Valmiki begs Bantu to save Nandu, he refuses but goes anyway. He thrashes the goons, slams Paidathalli, and stabs Naidu. Later, Raj saves Nandu, thus ending his enmity with Ramachandra. Bantu and Valmiki arrive at Vaikuntapuram, where ARK slaps Valmiki and reveals that he overheard the conversation between Sulochana and Bantu right before her death. Bantu unites with his biological father, Ramachandra but asks him not to reveal the truth to Yasu, fearing she might be disheartened to know that Raj is not her real child. Unaware of this, Yasu remarks that Bantu is equal to Raj as he saved Nandu and the family, thereby giving Bantu 50% of its shares. Yasu then asks Valmiki to train Raj for five years to be as competent as Bantu and become the CEO of the company.
After arriving at Valmiki's house, Raj, feeling comfortable with his new middle class life and Bantu's old travel job, said that Valmiki, with a nurse's help, should have switched the babies 25 years ago so he could've ended up at Valmiki's house and Bantu at Ramachandra's, much to the dismay of Valmiki. The story ends with Valmiki watching hopelessly as Bantu leaves in a helicopter with Ammu.
Cast
Production
Development It was reported that, post the release of Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava (2018), Trivikram Srinivas decided to direct a new film with Allu Arjun and that, after listening to the script, the actor had advised the filmmaker to make some changes. The idea of swapping infants was earlier attempted in Vedantam Raghavayya's Inti Guttu (1958), starring N. T. Rama Rao and Savitri.
On 31 December 2018, coinciding with New Year's Eve, the project was officially announced, thus marking the third collaboration of Trivikram and Arjun after Julayi (2012) and S/O Satyamurthy (2015). It was further reported that Allu Aravind, Arjun's father will co-produce the film under his own banner Geetha Arts, along with S. Radha Krishna's Haarika & Haasine Creations. The film was launched under the tentative title #AA19, before the title Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, was revealed on 15 August 2019.
Casting In mid-October 2018, reports surfaced that Kiara Advani will play the female lead opposite Allu Arjun. In January 2019, Sunil was reported to play an important role in the film. In February 2019, Pooja Hegde was reported to replace Advani, as the female lead, thus marking their collaboration with both Arjun and Trivikram, for the second time, after DJ: Duvvada Jagannadham (2017) and Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava (2018). Veteran actress Nagma was reported to play Allu Arjun's mother in the film, although she was not approached for the role.
Followed by the success of Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava, Trivikram hired S. Thaman, for the second time, as the film's music composer. In March 2019, it was reported that, Tabu was signed in for a significant role, marking her comeback to Telugu cinema, after Pandurangadu (2008). Nana Patekar was reported to play the antagonist role. On 8 April 2019, the lead cast and crew was announced on the occasion of Allu Arjun's birthday.
In May 2019, Ketika Sharma was reported to play the second female lead,`however, Nivetha Pethuraj was approached for the role, due to Sharma's commitments in Romantic (2019). The film's cast features Jayaram and Sushanth in pivotal roles. Kajal Aggarwal was reported to appear in an item number, but it was not confirmed by the makers. Tamil director and actor Samuthirakani was hired to play a negative role, which marked his maiden Telugu film.
Filming The film's launch event was speculated to be held on the occasion of Valentine's Day (14 February 2019). On 13 April 2019, the film's launch was held at the office of Geetha Arts, the film's production house, with a pooja ceremony attended by the film's team.
Principal shoot of the film took place on 24 April. Followed by a brief schedule in mid-April, the team took a break, citing the weather conditions, as well as Allu Arjun and his family, went for a short holiday in Switzerland. The makers resumed the film's shoot on 24 May 2019. After wrapping the first schedule, the makers kickstarted the second schedule on 5 June 2019 in Hyderabad, with Pooja Hegde joining the sets. On 14 June, leaked stills featuring Allu Arjun as a corporate employee, went viral on social media. During this schedule the film added Nivetha Pethuraj, Tabu and Sushanth in pivotal roles.
In mid-October, the team moved to France to film the song ''Samajavaragamana''. Parts of the song was shot at Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, France, and the Eiffel Tower, in Paris. The song was also filmed at Lido de Paris, a world-famous cabaret theatre, and became the first South Indian film to shoot there. The makers cost up to , for the song shoot. The team also shot the song "OMG Daddy" in parts of Europe. Later in December 2019, the makers moved to Hyderabad to shoot the song "Butta Bomma", for which a huge set was erected at the Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad. The shooting of the film was wrapped up on 28 December 2019.
Music
Thaman S composed the soundtrack album and background score for the film, in his third collaboration with Allu Arjun, after Race Gurram (2014) and Sarrainodu (2016), and second collaboration with Trivikram Srinivas after Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava (2018). The album which features six tracks, featuring lyrics written by Sirivennela Sitaramasastri, Kasarla Shyam, Krishna Chaitanya, Ramajogayya Sastry, Kalyan Chakravarthy and Vijay Kumar Bhalla, had four of the tracks being released as singles, and went viral upon release. The soundtrack album was released on 6 January 2020, and the songs were performed by Thaman and his musical crew at the AVPL Musical Concert held the very same day, at Yousufguda Police Grounds in Hyderabad. The Malayalam version of the soundtrack album were released on 10 January 2020.
It became the first Indian feature film soundtrack to have more than 1 billion-views on YouTube. The song "Butta Bomma" went on to become the most viewed Telugu song on YouTube with more than 800 million views as of January 2023. On YouTube's Top 10 Indian Music Videos, both "Butta Bomma" and "Ramuloo Ramulaa" became the only South Indian songs that have been listed in 2020.
There are 6 songs played in the boardroom scene: "Vachaadayyo Saami" from Bharat Ane Nenu (2018), "Follow Follow" from Nannaku Prematho (2016), "Undiporaadhey" from Hushaaru (2018), "Cinema Choopistha Mama" from Race Gurram (2014), "Pillaa" from Gabbar Singh (2012), and "Abbanee" from Jagadekaveerudu Athiloka Sundari (1990).
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