Chirutha

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Chirutha (transl. “Cheetah”) is a 2007 Telugu action drama directed by Puri Jagannadh and produced by C. Aswani Dutt under Vyjayanthi Movies. It is the film that launched Ram Charan, who made his debut opposite another newcomer, Neha Sharma, with Prakash Raj, Ashish Vidyarthi and Sayaji Shinde in support. Released worldwide on 27 September 2007, it drew positive reviews, was a commercial success, and won Ram Charan the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut – South and a Nandi Special Jury Award.

What the story is about

An auto driver helps the police arrest Mattu Bhai, a gangster he saw murder a news reporter. That night Mattu Bhai’s men take their revenge: the driver is killed and his wife badly injured, but their young son Charan survives. With no money for his mother’s operation, Charan takes a deal from a local mafia leader, confesses to a crime committed by the leader’s son, and goes to prison.

Twelve years later Charan is released and leaves for Bangkok to work as a tour guide for a travel agency. There he keeps running into Sanjana, the spoilt daughter of a wealthy businessman, Karthikeya, who is on holiday with her friends, and he ends up as her reluctant bodyguard when a gangster’s men start bothering her. Charan has his own reason for being in Bangkok, and it has to do with Mattu Bhai. We will leave the rest of the story for the screen.

Cast and crew

• Ram Charan as Charan
• Neha Sharma as Sanjana
• Prakash Raj as Karthikeya, Sanjana’s father
• Ashish Vidyarthi as Mattu Bhai
• Tanikella Bharani as Venkateswara Rao, Charan’s uncle
• Sayaji Shinde as ASP Ajay
• Daniel Balaji as Biku
• Brahmanandam as Krish
• Ali as Nachimi
• M. S. Narayana as Babi, Charan’s boss
• Dharmavarapu Subramanyam as Subramanyam, Sanjana’s PA
• Pragathi as Charan’s mother

Music: Mani Sharma. Cinematography: Shyam K. Naidu. Runtime: 151 minutes.

Making of the film

Chirutha was shot largely in Thailand, in schedules split between Bangkok and Hyderabad. In May 2007 a fight sequence was filmed on a large set built for around ₹70 lakh at Annapurna Studios, according to IndiaGlitz. The introduction song was choreographed by Raghava Lawrence in Hyderabad. Mani Sharma’s soundtrack was released on 22 August 2007.

Reviews

Y. Sunita Chowdary of The Hindu called it an “impressive debut”, “garnished well with commercial trappings”, and said Charan earned “serious brownie points for effortless dancing and fights”. Sify also praised his dancing and stunts and found him “smart and promising”. Idlebrain was more measured at 3 out of 5: the first half is “alright”, the second half “slows down a bit”, and the plus points are Ram Charan, the songs and the fights.

Box office

Delayed from 22 September, the film opened on 27 September 2007 on 708 screens, 532 of them in Andhra Pradesh. Idlebrain reported a share of ₹12 crore from Andhra Pradesh alone in its first seven days, and Cine Josh reported that it ran 50 days in 178 direct centres. The trade site T2BLive puts its final distributors’ share at ₹25 crore, a record at the time for a debut actor’s film. The film was later dubbed into Tamil as Siruthai Puli and into Malayalam as Cheetah.

Where to watch Chirutha

According to the film’s Wikipedia article, its streaming rights were sold to ZEE5 and Prime Video, its television rights are with Zee Telugu, and it is also available on YouTube. We have not confirmed a current platform listing, so check the service before you press play.

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