Raja Vikramarka

Raja Vikramarka is a 1990 Telugu film directed by Ravi Raja Pinisetty and produced by P. Amaranatha Reddy. Chiranjeevi plays a prince who runs away from his kingdom to live as an ordinary man in the city, opposite Radhika and Amala, in his only film with Amala. The music was Raj–Koti’s 100th soundtrack. Released on 14 November 1990, it was a big-budget production that did not do as well as expected.

What the story is about

Vikramarka is the prince of Skanda Dweepam, a small kingdom, and as a royal he has no freedom to live as he likes. When his father, Raja Bhupathi, arranges his marriage to a princess from another kingdom who turns out to have no mind of her own, Vikramarka slips away with his trusted friend Jockey to make his own life. In the big city he works as a mechanic and twice saves a young woman, Rekha, from attempts on her life. Her uncle, Viswanatham, hires him as her bodyguard, which is where the real trouble starts. We will leave the rest to the film.

Cast and crew

• Chiranjeevi as Raja Vikramarka
• Radhika as Maya
• Amala as Rekha
• Rao Gopal Rao as Viswanatham, Rekha’s uncle
• Kaikala Satyanarayana as Raja Bhupathi
• Kota Srinivasa Rao as Raja Kotappa
• Brahmanandam as Jockey
• Allu Ramalingaiah as Joginatham
• Gollapudi Maruti Rao as Kanaka Rao
• K. R. Vijaya as the queen

Director: Ravi Raja Pinisetty. Producer: P. Amaranatha Reddy (Wikipedia gives the banner as Sandhya Arts; our record lists Skhandha Arts). Music: Raj–Koti, six songs with lyrics by Veturi. Runtime: 154 minutes.

Making of the film

The film was launched in Bangalore on 7 August 1989, with Rajinikanth, who happened to be in the city, giving the first clap. During the shoot Chiranjeevi committed to his first Hindi film, Pratibandh (1990), also directed by Ravi Raja Pinisetty, and the producer let him use dates set aside for Raja Vikramarka. With Amala away in the United States and Radhika in London at different points, the film took 13 months to finish. A few scenes are said to have been inspired by Coming to America (1988).

Box office

Despite its scale, its unusual royal backdrop and a significant budget, Raja Vikramarka did not achieve the success expected of it, according to a 2022 retrospective in Chitrajyothy. We have not found collection figures from a named outlet. It was dubbed into Tamil as Sathiyama Naan Kavalkaran and into Hindi as Daulat Ki Duniya.

Where to watch Raja Vikramarka

We do not have a confirmed streaming listing for Raja Vikramarka (1990) on file. If we verify one with a platform, it will appear on this page.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Raja Vikramarka (1990 film) and the article it cites, linked above; our own cast and crew records.