Businessman is a 2012 Indian Telugu-language action crime film directed and written by Puri Jagannadh and produced by R. R. Venkat under the banner R. R. Movie Makers. It is based from a concept by Ram Gopal Varma and stars an ensemble cast featuring Mahesh Babu, Kajal Aggarwal, Prakash Raj, Nassar, Sayaji Shinde, Raza Murad, Subbaraju and Brahmaji. In the film, Vijay Surya arrives at Mumbai with aspirations to rule the city due to his grudge against the corrupt system in the country, but begins to face violent challenges from the cops and his enemies.
S. Thaman composed the music, while Shyam K. Naidu and M. S. Rajashekhar Reddy (S. R. Shekhar) handled the cinematography and editing. The film was made with a budget of 40 crore and was launched formally on 15 August 2011 in Hyderabad. Principal photography began on 2 September 2011 and was shot in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Goa. A few song sequences were shot in Bangkok. Filming ended on 10 December 2011 in 74 working days, making as one of the shortest periods in which a Telugu film has been shot.
Businessman was released during Sankranthi on 14 January 2012. The film grossed over 72 crore in its original release, becoming one of the highest-grossing Telugu films of 2012.
Plot
When Mumbai Police Commissioner Ajay Bhardwaj has declared the end of the mafia in the city, a brutal man named Vijay Surya arrives with the intention of conquering Mumbai. Staying at Dharavi with his friend, Surya recruits a group of gangsters and wins the support of a local politician named Lalu after getting a witness killed in jail by his henchman Shakeel. Surya further helps the Dharavi locals clear their debts by making his henchmen rob the original copies of the loan documents kept at the local branch of Bank of Maharashtra and destroy the bank records. While the locals hail him as their savior, Surya becomes feared for extortion.
In order to safeguard himself from Ajay, Surya traps his daughter Chitra Bhardwaj and pretends to fall for her. At the same time, Lalu requests Surya to make him the next mayor of Mumbai by threatening his opponent Arun Gokhale, who is endorsed by central minister and PM aspirant Ghanapuleti Jaidev. After being narrowly killed by Surya's men, Gokhale seeks Jaidev's help, and he sends his assassins; Surya, having been tipped by his right-hand Nazir, tricks the assassins into believing that he is a guide sent to help them where he plants bombs in their food that explodes, resulting in a shootout. While escaping, Surya sees Chitra, who has now learned of his true nature. When arrested, Surya accepts that he trapped her, but now he truly loves her. However, Ajay is forced to free Surya after his henchmen kidnap Chitra. Surya promises to give up crime in order to live with Chitra, but his proposal is turned down. So, he decides to legalize the mafia which cannot be touched by the police.
Surya started a company named Surya Exports & Imports as a front for his vigilante acts. In order to set up branch offices all over the country, Surya recruits local gangsters for staff and begins to forcibly extract a 2% tax on every contract made in the respective areas. Eventually, Surya becomes a billionaire, and during the inauguration of his "Business Bank", reveals his thirst for power to Ajay, further citing the decline in crime rate after recruiting the gangsters, and expressing his desire to help the needy. Surya further helps Lalu become the mayor of Mumbai by orchestrating fake IT raids on the properties of Jaidev and his accomplices, resulting in Gokhale's defeat; Surya later kidnaps Gokhale and returns him to Ajay, thereby exposing Jaidev's scams. Surya meets LoP Guru Govind Patel through Lalu and offers him 35,000 crore for election campaigning along with the promise to make him the next PM of India.
Learning that Jaidev is planning to get Gokhale, Chitra and Ajay killed, Surya saves Chitra but fails to save Ajay, who tells him to kill Jaidev in his final moments, and Gokhale, who is poisoned to death. Surya then reveals to Chitra that he was an American-born Indian whose philanthropist parents were cheated and killed by Jaidev. As a child, Surya tried to enlist the help of the police but found none, and he ended up stabbing and shooting Jaidev publicly; at jail, he decided to reform the corrupt system and control India. At the election, Surya spends crores of rupees per constituency in the nation, with Lalu installing candidates at his behest; Surya also exposes Jaidev's illegal affair, making him unable to contest in the elections.
Enraged, Jaidev kidnaps Chitra and Surya arrives to rescue her. Jaidev thrashes him and reveals that he gained public sympathy due to Surya's attack as a child and managed to become an MP. However, Surya gets into a fight with Jaidev's henchmen and leaves them all dead, except one who holds Chitra at knifepoint. Jaidev agrees to free Chitra if Surya dies. Surya shoots himself before shooting both Jaidev and the henchman to death. Chitra accepts her love for Surya, and Guru Govind Patel wins the elections. While recovering in the hospital, Surya delivers a message to the public, telling them not to trust anyone and that God has thrown them into a warzone, and tells the people to pursue anything according to their interest.
Cast
Production
Development Ram Gopal Varma signed Suriya for a multilingual action film titled The Businessman in May 2010, to be directed by Puri Jagannadh simultaneously in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi. The film's protagonist was supposed to be a South Indian coming to Mumbai and setting up a crime business using tact and intelligence to emerge as one of the biggest gangsters. The film's production was expected to begin in October 2010 once Suriya completed his part in 7 Aum Arivu (2011) and was scheduled for release in the summer of 2011.
The film was revived later by R. R. Venkat later in January 2011 with a tagline "Guns do not need agreements". He signed Mahesh Babu as the protagonist who worked with Jagannadh in the past for Pokiri (2006). Jagannadh completed the final draft of the film's script on 25 July 2011 during his stay at Bangkok, adding that he was inspired by Ram Gopal Varma. He stated that the pending pre-production work would begin in Hyderabad after a week. The film had its formal launch on 15 August 2011 with a small pooja ceremony conducted at Hyderabad. Shyam K. Naidu and S. Thaman were confirmed as the film's cinematographer and music director respectively.
Casting
Babu received the film's script while dubbing for Dookudu (2011), but due to that commitment, it took 10 days to finish reading the script. He said in an interview that he could maintain the consistency in the character only because of the fewer working days. Jagannadh did not cast Brahmanandam and Ali because of Babu's specific characterisation; he added that Babu's voice had changed when compared to his performance in Pokiri. Babu also convinced Jagannadh to give up smoking, since he himself was trying to give up after being a chain smoker.
Shruti Haasan was initially considered for the female lead role after her performance in her Telugu film debut, Anaganaga O Dheerudu (2011). However, Kajal Aggarwal was signed as the female lead later in May 2011, marking her first collaboration with both Babu and Jagannadh respectively. She was paid 1 crore for this film. Jagannadh confirmed reports stating Babu and Aggarwal sharing a kiss in the film, adding that he retained them after Babu's wife Namrata Shirodkar approved it. It was reportedly the first onscreen kiss for Babu. Aggarwal explained that it was not supposed to be sensual, but was meant to portray the conflict between two characters, and added that it was shot "aesthetically" by Jagannadh.
Actress Shweta Bhardwaj was friends with Jagannadh, and he approached her for this song during the film's shoot at Mumbai, saying that the song suited her and her personality as a dancer. She also tried to understand the meaning of the lyrics while dancing. Bhardwaj was afraid of dancing, suspecting a possible sprain, and found the costumes uneasy, but had to continue upon the choreographer's insistence. Canadian-born Indian actress Ayesha Shiva was signed to play Aggarwal's friend in the film.
Filming
Jagannadh told Venkat that he needed 75 working days to complete the film's shoot. He planned to start with Babu in the first week of September 2011 and established this schedule before finishing in the first week of January 2012. Filming began on 2 September 2011 at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad.
The song "We Want Bad Boys" was shot in late October 2011. After filming two songs in the districts of Krabi and Pattaya in Bangkok, the film's unit returned to Hyderabad on 2 December 2011 for completing patch work. The film's shooting was wrapped up on 10 December 2011 in 74 working days as expected.
Post production The film's dubbing activities began on 15 December 2011 at Shabdalaya Studios in Hyderabad. The DTS mixing works were in progress in early January 2012. The Central Board of Film Certification passed the film with an 'A' certificate; board members found few of the film's dialogues offensive and potentially upsetting to the people of Mumbai. Despite being set in Mumbai, the film features dialogue in Telugu, a language that is not native to the city for the convenience of the viewers. A disclaimer at the beginning of the film is given regarding the same.Businessman. (DVD). Disclaimer at 00:22
Music
The soundtrack consists of six songs composed by S. Thaman and written by Bhaskarabhatla Ravi Kumar. Aditya Music acquired the audio rights. The original version of the soundtrack was released on 21 December 2011, along with the dubbed Tamil and Malayalam versions at Shilpakala Vedika in Hyderabad. Na. Muthukumar and Kailas Rishi wrote the lyrics for the dubbed Tamil and Malayalam versions of the songs respectively. The soundtrack sold nearly 200,000 compact discs on the first day of its release itself.
Marketing The first-look poster featuring a still of Mahesh sitting in a chair and deeply thinking was revealed on 11 November 2011 (11.11.11), receiving a positive response. The theatrical trailer was attached to the prints of Panjaa (2011) to be screened in theatres from 9 December 2011.
As a part of the film's promotion, Aditya Music offered a range of ringtone packs. Contests were introduced where the winners won posters autographed by Babu, the film's tickets, and soundtrack discs apart from others.
Release Theatrical The film was initially planned for a worldwide release on 11 January 2012. Hari Venkateswara Pictures acquired the film's overseas distribution rights and after requests by non-Telugu Babu fans, it was the first Telugu film to release with subtitles in overseas cinemas. The release was postponed by two days to 13 January 2012 due to post production delays. 2,000 screens across the world were booked for the film's initial release.
It was released to 92 screens across Hyderabad, breaking the previous record set by Oosaravelli (2011) which was released to 70 screens. Prasads IMAX screened 33 shows on the release day. The film's Tamil dubbed version, also titled Businessman, was released on 7 December 2012 to 200 screens across Tamil Nadu.
Home media Jagannadh acquired the satellite rights of the film during his negotiations with the film's producers for 5 crore. He wanted to rotate the film screening on various channels, at appropriate times, in a bid to gain more widespread viewership and recoup his investment. The film's television broadcast rights were later sold to Gemini TV. The film's DVD and Blu-ray discs were produced by Universal Home Entertainment and were released in May 2012.
Legal issues and criticism