Kithakithalu

Kithakithalu (“Tickles”) is a 2006 Telugu comedy written, directed and produced by E. V. V. Satyanarayana, starring his son Allari Naresh with Geetha Singh and Madhu Shalini. The film is known for packing forty-two comedians into its supporting cast. Released on 5 May 2006, it opened to divided reactions but turned into one of the few successes of that summer.

What the story is about

Relangi Raja Babu is such a “nice guy” that he once filed a case against a girl who tried to harass him, because he wanted to stay “pure” for the woman he would marry. Once he becomes a sub-inspector, his parents push him to marry so that his dowry can pay for his sister’s wedding, but no girl will have him. Under threat of the family’s suicide, he ends up marrying Soundarya, a rich, plump girl, and the “nice guy” promptly starts chasing other women and looking for a way out of the marriage. Whether he gets his divorce, or changes his ways, is the rest of the film.

Cast and crew

• Allari Naresh as SI Relangi Raja Babu
• Geetha Singh as Soundarya
• Madhu Shalini as Rambha
• Giri Babu as Raja Babu’s father
• Jaya Prakash Reddy as Soundarya’s father, and M. S. Narayana as her grandfather
• AVS as the neighbour Chidatala Apparao
• Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, Raghu Babu, Ali, Sunil, Venu Madhav and many more in comic cameos

Writer, director and producer: E. V. V. Satyanarayana (E. V. V. Cinema). Runtime: 150 minutes.

Making the film

The muhurtam shot took place on 16 January 2006 at E. V. V. Cinema. Six dialogue writers worked on the script, and the last schedule was filmed at Le Palais Royal in Hyderabad. The film has no original soundtrack of its own; it reuses several songs from older films. An unrelated silent film had started production under the same title in 2003 and was later renamed Mr. Lonely Miss Lovely.

Release and reviews

Kithakithalu was first scheduled for 28 April 2006 and arrived a week later. Reviews were split. Telugucinema.com called it “a time pass movie” and, in a season of gory films, “a non-injurious film”. Cinegoer.com thought the material was stale and would have worked “in the 70s or even the 80s”, and that the comedy was not up to E. V. V.’s usual standard.

Box office

Audiences were kinder than the critics. The film started slowly but held on while the other big summer releases failed, and alongside Pokiri it was the only Telugu film to do well that summer, according to retrospectives of Allari Naresh’s career by News18 and The Times of India. No collection figures are reported.

Where to watch Kithakithalu

We do not have a confirmed streaming listing for Kithakithalu on file. If we verify one with a platform, it will appear on this page.

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