Aavida Maa Aavide

Aavida Maa Aavide (meaning “She too is my wife”) is a 1998 Telugu comedy drama written and directed by E. V. V. Satyanarayana and produced by D. Kishore under Jayabheri Art Productions. Nagarjuna stars with Tabu and Heera Rajagopal, with Kota Srinivasa Rao, Srihari and Brahmanandam in supporting roles, and Sri composed the music. Inspired by the 1940 American film My Favorite Wife, itself drawn from Tennyson’s poem Enoch Arden, it was released on 14 January 1998 and had an average run at the box office despite a big opening.

What the story is about

Circle Inspector Vikranth keeps running into Sub-Inspector Archana on the job in Hyderabad, and the two fall in love, marry and have a son. Then Archana and the boy are reported killed when a police jeep carrying a prisoner to court is blown up. Vikranth cannot get over the loss, and his father and Archana’s mother eventually arrange his marriage to a young woman, Jhansi, without telling her about his past. Some time later Archana and their son return, alive: they had been kidnapped by terrorists before the blast. When Jhansi insists on moving into a flat in the same neighbourhood, Vikranth is left juggling two wives who live next door to each other, with each believing the other’s husband is merely his lookalike.

Cast

• Nagarjuna as C.I. Vikranth
• Tabu as S.I. Archana
• Heera Rajagopal as Jhansi
• Kota Srinivasa Rao as Murari and Srihari as Kirloskar, Jhansi’s criminal cousin
• Brahmanandam as Head Constable Ramakoti and Shanoor Sana as Head Constable Victoria
• Giri Babu as Vikranth’s father, Rama Prabha as Archana’s mother and Chakravarthy as Jhansi’s father
• AVS as a hotel owner, with Mallikarjuna Rao and Ironleg Sastri

Music

Sri composed the songs, with lyrics by Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry, released by Aditya Music.

Release and reception

The film opened on 14 January 1998. Contemporary reports in Andhra Online and Screen describe a large opening followed by an average run. A critic at Andhra Today wrote that “with hardly any story to carry it, the film rides on the sheer talents of the director and the acting skills of the lead man Nagarjuna”. It was dubbed into Tamil as Police Killadi and into Hindi as Biwi No.2.

Where to watch Aavida Maa Aavide

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

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Aavida Maa Aavide and the reports and review it cites, linked above; Wikidata; our own cast and crew records.