Malliswari

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Malliswari is a 2004 Telugu romantic comedy directed by K. Vijaya Bhaskar and produced by D. Suresh Babu under Suresh Productions, written by Vijaya Bhaskar from a story by Trivikram Srinivas, who also wrote the dialogue. Venkatesh plays a lovelorn bank clerk who ends up protecting a runaway heiress, played by Katrina Kaif in her Telugu debut. Released on 18 February 2004, it was a commercial success and won two Nandi Awards.

What the story is about

Malliswari is the heiress to the Raja of Mirzapur. Under her late father’s will, she inherits a fortune of ₹750 crore when she turns 21. Until then the estate is run by Bhavani Shankar, who plans to have her killed so that he can keep it. To hide her, she is sent to her uncle’s house in Visakhapatnam to live as an ordinary girl. There Prasad, a clerk at Andhra Bank, has spent seven years looking for a bride and is getting desperate. He meets Malliswari by chance and falls head over heels, just as Bhavani Shankar’s hired men find her. Prasad ends up escorting her to Hyderabad, and the journey is where the comedy and the romance play out. We will leave the rest to the film.

Cast and crew

• Venkatesh as Prasad, an unmarried bank employee
• Katrina Kaif as Malliswari
• Kota Srinivasa Rao as Bhavani Shankar
• Brahmanandam as Balu
• Sunil as Padmanabham “Paddu”
• Naresh as Prasad’s elder brother
• Tanikella Bharani as Murthy
• Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam as Shankar Rao, the bank manager
• M. S. Narayana in a cameo
• Banerjee as a hired assassin

Director: K. Vijaya Bhaskar. Producer: D. Suresh Babu. Music: Koti (Aditya Music). Cinematography: Sameer Reddy. Editing: A. Sreekar Prasad. Runtime: 155 minutes.

Making of the film

The film is said to have been inspired by Roman Holiday (1953). Yana Gupta was first cast as the princess before Katrina Kaif replaced her; according to The Times of India, Kaif was paid ₹70 lakh, making her the highest-paid actress in South Indian cinema at the time. The second schedule was shot in Visakhapatnam, with songs filmed in Bangkok, Goa and New Zealand. Koti’s song “Gundello Gulabila Mullu” is based on “Rhythm Divine”.

Reviews

Idlebrain found the first half “very interesting with series of hilarious scenes” and the climax “very impressive”, crediting Trivikram’s dialogue, Vijaya Bhaskar’s direction and Venkatesh, “who managed the entire show single-handedly”, though it found the songs weak and the narration slow. The Deccan Herald called the story clichéd but said the film “provides entertainment if you are not looking for deep plots”, carried along by its gags.

Box office and awards

Malliswari was a commercial success, though we have not found a collection figure from a named outlet. It won Nandi Awards for Best Home Viewing Feature Film, for D. Suresh Babu, and Best Dialogue Writer, for Trivikram Srinivas. It was remade in Kannada as Kodagana Koli Nungitha (2008), reviewed by the Bangalore Mirror.

Where to watch Malliswari

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

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Malliswari (2004 film) and the reviews and reports it cites, linked above; our own cast and crew records.