Athadu

Athadu (meaning “Him”) is a 2005 Telugu action thriller with a comic streak, written and directed by Trivikram Srinivas and produced by Jayabheri Arts. Mahesh Babu plays a hitman framed for a political murder, with Trisha, Sonu Sood, Prakash Raj, Nassar, Sunil, Sayaji Shinde, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Brahmanandam. Mani Sharma composed the music and K. V. Guhan shot it. Released on 10 August 2005 to strong reviews, it was among the year’s highest-grossing Telugu films, won three Nandi Awards and a Filmfare Award, and is famous for having been shown on Telugu television more than a thousand times.

What the story is about

Opposition leader Siva Reddy wants to win the coming election on a wave of sympathy, so he and his deputy Baaji Reddy hire a professional killer, Nanda Gopal, “Nandu”, and his partner Malli to stage a failed attempt on his life. On the day, someone else’s bullet kills Siva Reddy for real, Malli appears to die in a crash, and Nandu escapes the police dragnet by jumping onto a moving train. There he meets Parthasaradhi, “Pardhu”, a young man going home to the village of Basarlapudi for the first time since running away as a child twenty years earlier. When a police search on the train ends with Pardhu dead, Nandu makes his way to Basarlapudi, where Pardhu’s family, who have not seen him since he was a boy, welcome Nandu home as their long-lost son, while a sharp CBI officer, Anjaneya Prasad, takes up the case.

Cast

• Mahesh Babu as Nandu
• Trisha as Poori, Pardhu’s cousin
• Prakash Raj as CBI officer Anjaneya Prasad
• Sonu Sood as Malli
• Nassar as Satyanarayana Murthy, Pardhu’s grandfather (voice by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam)
• Sayaji Shinde as Siva Reddy and Kota Srinivasa Rao as Baaji Reddy
• Sunil as Ramana, Pardhu’s friend, and Rajiv Kanakala as Pardhu
• Rahul Dev as Sadhu, Ajay as Pratap Reddy and Posani Krishna Murali as Farooq
• Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam and Giri Babu as Poori’s family, and K. Viswanath in a special appearance

How it was made

Trivikram first narrated the story to Pawan Kalyan, who, according to Filmibeat and The Hans India, showed little interest. Mahesh Babu heard it in 2002, and the makers waited until he finished Naani and Arjun; he spent ten days getting used to Trivikram’s style of dialogue. Trivikram later told Idlebrain.com that he refused to compromise but achieved only 80 per cent of what he had imagined. Murali Mohan had hoped to bring Sobhan Babu out of retirement as the grandfather, even sending him a blank cheque, but he declined and Nassar took the role. Peter Hein supervised the action, for which 160 digital still cameras were imported from London to capture freeze-frames; with no more than ten shots a day, principal photography stretched over two years. Most family scenes were shot on a large set at Ramanaidu Studios in Nanakramguda.

Music

Mani Sharma’s six-song soundtrack, his first with Trivikram, has lyrics by Sirivennela Sitaramasastri and Viswa and was launched by Mahesh Babu’s father, Krishna, on 29 June 2005 on the film’s house set. The score and title song were praised, though parts of the title song were noted to resemble Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter”. Sify singled out “Neetho Cheppana”, shot in Darjeeling’s tea estates.

Box office

Athadu opened on three screens in Chennai, the first Telugu film to do so, and according to a Sify report netted ₹10 lakh there in its first weekend. CineGoer.com puts its total distributors’ share at about ₹22 crore, and Box Office Andhra gives the same total, ₹18.6 crore of it from Andhra Pradesh; Idlebrain.com put the budget at ₹12–13 crore. CineGoer also reports a 175-day run at Sudarshan 35mm in Hyderabad that grossed ₹1.40 crore. In 2014 The Hans India reported that MAA TV had renewed its television rights for ₹3.5 crore, a record for a 2005 film. A 4K version was re-released on 9 August 2025 for the film’s 20th anniversary and Mahesh Babu’s 50th birthday.

What critics said

Sify found Mahesh Babu “cool, confident and competent as a hit man”, though it felt the film “just about makes it as a slickly packaged entertainer”. Cinegoer.net saw Hollywood influence in its structure but called the love track between Mahesh Babu and Trisha “impressive and refreshing”.

Remakes

Athadu was remade in Hindi as Ek: The Power of One (2009) and in Bengali as Wanted (2010).

Where to watch Athadu

Our OTT record lists Athadu as streaming on Aha, based on the platform’s own listing (checked 26 September 2026). Availability, audio languages and subscription terms vary by country, so check the platform before subscribing. The OTT box on this page has the current link.

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