Oh My Friend

Oh My Friend is a 2011 Telugu romantic drama written and directed by Venu Sriram in his debut and produced by Dil Raju under Sri Venkateswara Creations. Siddharth and Shruti Haasan play lifelong best friends, with Hansika and Navdeep, and Rahul Raj composed the songs in his Telugu debut, with a background score by Mani Sharma. Distributed by Geetha Arts, it was released on 11 November 2011 to mixed reviews.

What the story is about

Chandu and Siri have been inseparable since childhood, calling each other “Faltoos” and “Killer”. Sent to Mumbai to do an MBA, Chandu comes back having studied music instead, to his father’s dismay, and Siri promises his father she will take charge of Chandu’s career. Siri, after talking it over with Chandu, accepts a proposal from Uday, who lives in the US, and Chandu falls at first sight for Ritu, an old college friend. As each finds a partner, the question is whether their partners can live with a friendship this close, and whether Chandu and Siri can stay “just friends” in everyone else’s eyes.

Cast

• Siddharth as Chandu, “Faltoos”
• Shruti Haasan as Siri Chandana, “Killer”
• Hansika as Ritu Sharma
• Navdeep as Uday
• Tanikella Bharani and Lakshmi Ramakrishnan as Chandu’s parents, and Vinaya Prasad as Siri’s mother
• Ali as Clarity Kanna Rao and Raghu Babu as a resort worker

How it was made

Venu Sriram had assisted Sukumar on Arya (2004). Dil Raju told Idlebrain.com that Venu first pitched a different story for Prabhas, which did not satisfy him; while assisting on Kotha Bangaru Lokam (2008), Venu wrote the first draft of Oh My Friend, and Raju gave him six months to finish the script. According to The Hindu, Raju first offered it to M. S. Raju for his son Sumanth, who was busy, and then to Siddharth, reuniting him with the producer after Bommarillu. Amala Paul, Amrita Rao and Nithya Menen were all considered or cast for the female lead before Shruti Haasan; five or six actors turned down the parallel lead before Navdeep accepted it. Filming began in Hyderabad on 21 February 2011 and moved to Visakhapatnam, Alappuzha and the Mumbai–Pune Expressway, finishing in 84 working days, with Vijay K. Chakravarthy as cinematographer.

Music

Rahul Raj composed six of the seven songs; “Sri Chaitanya” was composed by the late Anil R. The lyrics are by Krishna Chaitanya and Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry. Aditya Music released the album at Shilpakala Vedika on 15 October 2011, and it reportedly set sales records, according to Idlebrain.com, NDTV and The Times of India.

Release

The film opened with 250 prints on 11 November 2011, the same day as It’s My Love Story, after a premiere in Hyderabad the night before. BlueSky Cinemas released it overseas. A Tamil dub, Sridhar, followed on 18 May 2012 in 200 theatres across Tamil Nadu, according to Sify, with Sivakarthikeyan dubbing Siddharth’s lines. Wikipedia does not record its box-office result.

What critics said

Radhika Rajamani of Rediff.com called it a “feel-good entertainer” that works because of Siddharth and Shruti, and Y. Sunita Chowdary of The Hindu praised its visual appeal and “fine performances”. Idlebrain.com said viewers would either connect with it or not. NDTV found it effective but lacking “a creative approach”, The New Indian Express called it “watchable” but “too stale and predictable”, and Bangalore Mirror called Shruti a “surprise package”. The Times of India found it entirely routine, and Sify said its “documentary type of treatment” tested the audience’s patience.

Where to watch Oh My Friend

We do not have a confirmed streaming platform for Oh My Friend on file. The OTT details on this page will be updated when a platform’s own listing confirms it.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Oh My Friend and the reviews and reports it cites, linked above; Wikidata; our own cast and crew records.