Aagadu () is a 2014 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film directed by Srinu Vaitla. Written by Anil Ravipudi, Upendra Madhav and Praveen Varma, the film was jointly produced by Ram Achanta, Gopi Achanta and Anil Sunkara under their banner 14 Reels Entertainment. It stars Mahesh Babu, Tamannaah Bhatia and Sonu Sood in lead roles while Rajendra Prasad, Ashish Vidyarthi, Nassar, and Brahmanandam play supporting roles.
Aagadu was Thaman S 50th film as a music composer, with K. V. Guhan as the cinematographer and M. R. Varma as the editor. Mahesh played Shankar, an encounter specialist who becomes the circle inspector of police in Bukkapatnam. He is tasked with stopping the power plant construction by Damodar (Sonu Sood), a crime boss, due to its environmental impact. Shankar later learns that Damodar is responsible for his brother Bharath's death, leading him to seek revenge.
Principal photography for Aagadu began on 28 November 2013 and concluded on 5 September 2014. Most of the film was shot in and around Hyderabad, with additional locations including Mumbai, Gujarat, Ballari and Kerala. Some song sequences were filmed in Ladakh, Switzerland and Ooty, in addition to Hyderabad and Bellary. The post-production phase lasted for 50 days and was completed on 16 September 2014. Aagadu was theatrically released worldwide on 19 September 2014. The film received mixed reviews and was a box office bomb.
Plot Shankar, an orphan is raised by a sincere police officer Raja Ram. When Raja's son Bharath accidentally kills a kid, Shankar takes the blame for him. Shankar is imprisoned, and Raja warns him not to meet him again. After graduating, Shankar is employed as a circle inspector of police. He is popularly referred to as "Encounter" Shankar because of his track record as an encounter specialist.
Shankar is transferred to Bukkapatnam town in Tadipatri, Anantapur district. He is assigned the task of halting the illegal businesses of Damodar, an influential crime boss whose dream project is to build a power plant. Using his wits, Shankar destroys all the three main businesses of Damodar by befriending and trapping their respective in-charges: Lion Seenu, Ferocious Firangee and Super Sampangi. The three become Shankar's allies in the aftermath. He brings a stay on the power project by bringing a few vital witnesses before the court of law, thereby earning Damodar's ire. On a parallel note, Shankar loves a sweet shop owner named Saroja who reciprocates his feelings at a later point of time.
A person named Shekhar approaches Shankar, and through him, he informs Mallikarjuna Rao, the local Superintendent of Police, that he is the witness of the murder of environmentalist Prakash by Damodar. Damodar influences all the witnesses including Shekhar before Shankar could arrest him. He later learns that Raja's son Bharath, the previous district collector, killed himself and his wife, who was a friend of Prakash, because of defamation and personal attacks when Bharath tried to stop the power project.
Damodar held half of the share in the project whilst Mallikarjuna and central minister Nagaraju held the remaining half share. Before committing suicide, Bharath revealed the truth behind Shankar's imprisonment to Raja and unites them. Shankar seeks revenge, and with the help of a lawyer named Database Donayya, he gathers information regarding the power broker of this project named Delhi Suri, Mallikarjuna and Damodar's conservative girlfriend named Sukanya, who actually was an actress working in risqué films in the past.
By trapping initially and blackmailing later, Shankar gets hold of Delhi Suri with whose help, he creates a rift between Damodar and Nagaraju which leads to the latter's murder. By blackmailing Sukanya, they trap Mallikarjuna with her help and accuse him of attempting sexual assault on Sukanya. However, Mallikarjuna comes out of the closet and reveals that he is gay and was believed by none. He is murdered by poisoning.
Damodar's brother Durga is killed by Damodar himself after Shankar pollutes his mind accusing Durga for an attack on Damodar's life. Meanwhile, Shankar and Saroja get engaged. Delhi Suri learns about Donayya and destroys his office. Donayya takes revenge by revealing Delhi Suri's role in the murders of the three people to Damodar. When Damodar tries to kill Delhi Suri, he is confronted by Shankar who kills him after a duel. Bharath receives posthumous recognition for his honesty, while Delhi Suri turns a police informer working under Shankar.
Cast
Production Origin and casting
On the first anniversary of Dookudu (2011), its producers Ram Achanta, Gopi Achanta and Anil Sunkara announced on 23 September 2012 that they would bankroll a film featuring Mahesh Babu as the protagonist and directed by Srinu Vaitla under their banner 14 Reels Entertainment. Gopimohan chose to work with new writers for developing the film's script further. Mahesh supported his decision, stating that this change would make the audience experience freshness and discover something new. Vaitla wanted to narrate a character-driven story with entertainment as priority. Aagadu was confirmed as the film's title in July 2013.
The core technical crew of Dookudu were retained for Aagadu as well. Thaman S was signed to compose the music, which marked his 50th film as a music composer. K. V. Guhan and A. S. Prakash were chosen as the film's director of photography and art director respectively. M. R. Varma edited the film. The official launch ceremony of the film, initially planned on 16 October 2013, was postponed to 25 October 2013 by paying respect to Srihari who succumbed to liver cancer on 9 October 2013. The film was officially launched at Ramanaidu Studios with filmmakers D. Ramanaidu and Shyam Prasad Reddy attending the ceremony as the guests of honour.
Mahesh played the role of Shankar, an encounter specialist similar to the one he played in Dookudu. This was the third time Mahesh played the role of a police officer in his career after Pokiri and Dookudu. Tamannaah Bhatia was signed as the female lead, and she played the role of a local sweet shop owner. She sported a traditional attire for her look in the film. Rajendra Prasad was chosen to play Mahesh's father in the film. Prakash Raj was selected to play a negative role in the film. He was later replaced with Sonu Sood due to his creative differences with Vaitla. Brahmaji played the role of an honest police constable. Shruti Haasan performed an item number in the film which was the first of her other similar special appearances. Brahmanandam was signed to play a supporting role. He performed a spoof of Yamadonga (2007), Racha (2012), Legend (2014) and Race Gurram (2014). Mahesh performed a spoof on the game show Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu.
Filming Principal photography commenced on 28 November 2013 at Hyderabad. Tamannaah joined the film's sets on 12 December 2013. A village set resembling Tadipatri was erected in Gujarat for the film's shoot to avoid local interference from crowds that would ensue if shot in Andhra Pradesh, where Mahesh is a star. Few key scenes including a fight sequence were shot at Nanakramguda in a large set. The next schedule stated at Ballari from 23 February 2014. Mahesh did not suffer any injuries during the film's shoot at Bellary, but took rest due to the stress he underwent. Filming continued at Hyderabad from 10 March 2014. Some comedy scenes were filmed on the principal cast. Few scenes were filmed at the Mount Opera in Hyderabad. Scenes featuring Mahesh, Prasad and Sood were filmed in early April 2014.
The film's flashback scenes were being shot at Chiran Fort Club in Hyderabad till 11 April 2014. The makers preferred Hyderabad to Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan for the remaining portions and 70% of the shoot was completed by late April 2014. After filming few portions at Ramoji Film City, the next schedule commenced at Ladakh on 20 May 2014. On its completion, majority of the film's shoot was wrapped up. After completion of the shoot there, filming continued at Ramoji Film City and Mumbai in June 2014. Some crucial scenes on Mahesh, Sood, and others were filmed there. The next schedule was planned in Bellary and Kerala from 22 June 2014. After its completion, the next schedule commenced in Hyderabad from 6 July 2014.
Some key scenes were filmed on Mahesh, Tamannaah, Sood and Brahmanandam in Hyderabad till 18 July 2014. The intermission action sequences featuring Mahesh, Sood and others were filmed at Ramoji Film City from the next day. The climax sequences were shot in August 2014 on Mahesh and other supporting cast at Rachakonda near Ramoji Film City. The remaining part of the climax sequences, including an action sequence on Mahesh and Sood, was filmed at the hilly areas in Ramoji Film City. After completing the schedule at Europe on 25 August 2014, the unit returned to Hyderabad three days later. Principal photography ended on 5 September 2014 at Ooty.
Song sequences The song "Aagadu" was filmed on Mahesh and few dancers at the Jindal Steel Factory, Bellary in October 2013. This became the first Telugu film to be shot there and also made the factory a notable location for the song shoots of Kannada films such as Rana Vikrama (2015), Ranna (2015), and Mr. Airavata (2015). Both the song and fight sequences were filmed in 23 days. Mahesh and the members of the film's unit had fallen sick and continued work using antibiotics. Mahesh called it the "most strenuous schedule I went through in my life", and added, "For every shot, they had to get the dust up to get the right visual. Room kocchi snanam chesthe () I would see only mud. It’s very dangerous".
The song "Bhelpuri" was filmed on the lead pair near Pangong Tso, Ladakh in May 2014 under the supervision of choreographer Dinesh. Few portions were filmed at Leh for ten days with great difficulty under the supervision of choreographer Prem Rakshith. Tamannaah called it "one of the most difficult songs I have ever done", adding that it is a "full on dance number, unlike a song in which you are walking away and looking pretty". During the shoot, the car used by Vaitla and his team got stuck in the Nubra for seven hours. The manager lost his voice and the others developed severe headaches. The song was filmed for ten days at that altitude and Vaitla flew 300 people in a flight for the same.
The song "Junction Lo" was filmed on Mahesh and Haasan in a specially erected set at Ramoji Film City. It was choreographed by Rakshith and was wrapped up on 31 July 2014. Apart from Brahmanandam, 60 background dancers participated in the song's shoot. The song "Nari Nari" and a part of the song "Aaja Saroja" were filmed on Mahesh and Tamannaah at Switzerland. A motion control equipment weighing 800 kilograms was transported from Amsterdam to Switzerland for the shoot of the latter. When the Italian crew refused to come because of the weather in Switzerland, Vaitla filmed parts of the song at the hills and the waterfalls. The remaining portion of the song "Aaja Saroja" was filmed at Ooty, on whose completion the film's principal photography was wrapped up.
Post-production Post-production phase was scheduled to be wrapped up in 50 days. On 19 May 2014, a puja commemorated the beginning of the film's dubbing at Hyderabad. The supporting cast of the film completed dubbing for their parts in late August 2014, and Mahesh began dubbing for his role after returning from Europe. The dubbing was completed on 10 September 2014. Aagadu was passed with an 'U/A' certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification in mid September 2014. All the remaining post-production activities, including the final mixing, were wrapped up by 16 September 2014.
Music