Ashta Chamma

Ashta Chamma (named after a four-player board game) is a 2008 Telugu romantic comedy written and directed by Mohana Krishna Indraganti, a loose adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest. Nani stars with Swathi Reddy, Srinivas Avasarala and Bhargavi, with Tanikella Bharani in a supporting role; Kalyani Malik composed the music. Released on 5 September 2008, it was well reviewed and a box-office success, and Swathi won both the Filmfare and Nandi awards for Best Actress.

What the story is about

Lavanya is the most devoted of Mahesh Babu’s female fans, and when the star marries she is heartbroken. She stays depressed for days until she strikes a bargain with her exasperated aunt, Mandira Devi: if she cannot marry Mahesh Babu, she will at least marry a man named Mahesh. The hunt for a suitable Mahesh goes nowhere until her neighbour and friend Anand meets a charming young man of that name in a bar, tests him out and introduces him to Lavanya, and the two seem made for each other. But this Mahesh has a second life in a village called Lakkavaram, a sister with a fixation of her own, and a secret that sets off a comedy of mistaken names and identities.

Cast

• Nani as Mahesh
• Swathi Reddy as Lavanya
• Srinivas Avasarala as Anand, Lavanya’s neighbour
• Bhargavi as Varalakshmi
• Tanikella Bharani as Sarva Sarma, a bachelor priest
• Jhansi as Mandira Devi, Lavanya’s aunt, and Hema as Ammaji
• Vasu Inturi as Ranga, Anand’s domestic help

How it was made

Indraganti had made his debut with the National Award-winning Grahanam (2005), followed by Mayabazaar (2006). As he developed the characters, the story became more female-centred and moved away from Wilde; he spent about two months on a 225-page draft and several more months refining it. It was the first production of Ram Mohan, an IIM Ahmedabad graduate who had worked at UTV; Marthand K. Venkatesh edited it. Indraganti told Rediff that he had wanted Bhumika Chawla for the lead and had cast Swathi in the supporting role, but promoted Swathi when Chawla could not be signed. The board game the film is named after, also known as Ludo, was released as part of its promotion.

Box office

Wikipedia, citing The Hindu and Sify, describes the film as a box-office success, and T2BLive puts its distributors’ share at ₹6 crore.

Awards

Swathi won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu and the Nandi Award for Best Actress, as reported by The Hindu, and Ram Mohan received the Nandi Award for Best Home-viewing Feature Film.

Where to watch Ashta Chamma

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

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Ashta Chamma and the articles it cites, linked above; Wikidata; our own cast and crew records.