Srimanthudu (English: Wealthy Man) is a 2015 Telugu drama film written and directed by Koratala Siva, under Mythri Movie Makers. Besides co-producing the film, Mahesh Babu played the film's protagonist with Shruti Haasan playing the female lead.Jagapati Babu, Rajendra Prasad, Sampath Raj, Sukanya and Harish Uthaman appear in supporting roles.
Srimanthudu was made on a budget of ₹400—700 million. In addition to directing the film, Siva wrote its screenplay. Devi Sri Prasad composed the score and R. Madhi was its cinematographer. Production began on 11 August 2014 at Ramanaidu Studios in Hyderabad. Principal photography began on 7 November 2014 in Pune, lasting until mid-June 2015. Most of the film was shot in and around Hyderabad, while few portions were filmed across Tamil Nadu and Malaysia. Srimanthudu and its Tamil dubbed version titled Selvandhan had a simultaneous worldwide release on 7 August 2015 in around 2500 screens and opened to positive critical reception.
Contents
[hide]Plot
Harsha Vardhan is the sole heir of his father Ravikanth's business empire worth 250 billion. He takes up a course on rural development after he meets Charusheela at his friend Apparao's birthday party. She wants to use technology for the benefit of Devarakota, a remote village in Uttarandhra where she hails from. Friendship blossoms between them and they become attracted to each other in the course of time.
The natural resources of Devarakota are exploited by Sashi, the brother of central minister Venkata Ratnam, whose tyranny makes the locals migrate to cities for better living. Nevertheless, the village head Narayana Rao hopes that the standard of living shall develop soon along with the village's conditions. Meanwhile, Ratnam's son Radha blackmails to harm Ravikanth's family if he does not back out of a prestigious highway contract. Ravikanth's nephew Karthik, who wants to be the successor of Ravikanth's throne, leaks the tender details to Radha which comes to the notice of Harsha. After subtly warning Ratnam at his residence in Delhi, Harsha files another tender for a lower price secretly on behalf of the company and wins the contract.
Charusheela comes to know that Harsha is Ravikanth's son and starts avoiding him. When he asks the reason, she says that Ravikanth is a native of Devarakota who left for Hyderabad to earn wealth unlike her father Narayana Rao and bids farewell. Asking his father for a long holiday before joining the office, Harsha leaves for Devarakota without his father's knowledge and introduces himself to Rao as a student pursuing course in rural development who has come to study the village's conditions.
After studying Devarakota's conditions and Sashi's tyranny, Harsha announces that he shall adopt the village and develop it. While he continues to improve the village's conditions, Ratnam asks Sashi to develop the village partly in order to win in the upcoming elections but he remains silent with an intention of crediting himself behind the development. At the same time, Harsha comes to know from Rao that Ravikanth longed for the village's development similar to Harsha and established a dairy farm for the locals' welfare. Ratnam and Sashi set the farm on fire which results in the death of many and Ravikanth was subsequently insulted and arrested. He walked out of the village and went on to acquire much wealth.
Charusheela returns to Devarakota and assumes that Harsha is trying to impress her family with an intention of marrying her. Initially livid, Charusheela is impressed by Harsha when the latter succeeds in stopping her uncle's family from migrating to the city with their employed son and instead makes their son decide to visit them every possible weekend. Later, Harsha and Charusheela come to know that Ratnam is going to take over all the agricultural lands for political gains since their value shall appreciate post the official declaration of the coastal industrial corridor. Harsha confronts them and warns them not to interfere in his work of developing the village.
Harsha later visits a water bottling unit which eats into the drinking water source of the village apart from producing alcoholic beverages. He tries to close it and by then, Ravikanth is informed by Ratnam about Harsha's adoption of Devarakota. Harsha is attacked by Sashi's henchmen and is subsequently hospitalised. Ravikanth manages to bring him back to Hyderabad and Harsha joins the office. Ravikanth later confronts a visibly upset Harsha and decides to send him back to Devarakota, earning Harsha's love which he yearned for years. Harsha handovers the reigns of the business empire to Karthik and leaves.
At Devarakota, Harsha kills Ratnam and Sashi at the factory and construes it as an accident due to short-circuit negligence, similar to Sashi's manipulation before Ravikanth's arrest. The film ends with Ravikanth and his family visiting Rao's house on Sankranthi where Harsha, now Charusheela's husband, receives them warmly.
