Rakshasudu

ఈ సినిమా వివరాలు తెలుగులో చదవండి →

Rakshasudu (transl. “Demon”) is a 1986 Telugu action crime film directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy and produced by K. S. Rama Rao under Creative Commercials, based on Yandamuri Veerendranath’s novel of the same name. Chiranjeevi plays a man raised in a labour camp who goes looking for the mother he never knew, with Radha and Suhasini, and Nagendra Babu in his acting debut. Ilaiyaraaja composed the music. Released on 2 October 1986, it was a major hit, running 100 days in 28 centres.

What the story is about

A widow gives birth to a baby boy, and the local landlord, who disapproves, orders the child got rid of. A drunkard finds the baby, raises him for a few years and then sells him to a labour camp. Twenty years later the boy, known only as Purusha, escapes with his friend Simham to find his mother. The landlord says she left long ago and demands ₹10,000 for more. When the two steal the money, they are caught by J. Krishna Murthy, “JK”, who lets them keep it, and then buys the information about Purusha’s mother for himself. JK wants to use Purusha against his rival, a drug dealer, and Purusha has little choice but to agree. Where that leads is the rest of the film.

Cast and crew

• Chiranjeevi as Purusha
• Radha as Sailaja
• Suhasini as Sumathi, a schoolteacher
• Rao Gopal Rao as J. Krishna Murthy (JK)
• Tiger Prabhakar as Vankachakra Ram Murthy (VR)
• Nagendra Babu as Simham
• Rajendra Prasad as Inspector Vijay
• Allu Ramalingaiah as Narasimham
• Annapurna as Purusha’s mother

Director: A. Kodandarami Reddy. Producer: K. S. Rama Rao. Story: Yandamuri Veerendranath. Music: Ilaiyaraaja (Echo Audio). Runtime: 146 minutes.

Making of the film

Rakshasudu was the third film to bring together Chiranjeevi, K. S. Rama Rao, Kodandarami Reddy, Yandamuri Veerendranath and Ilaiyaraaja, after Abhilasha (1983) and Challenge (1984). As Samayam Telugu and Namasthe Telangana have both pointed out, it is the only film in which Chiranjeevi’s character has no name: others simply call him “friend” or “Purusha”, meaning “man”.

Box office

The film was a big commercial success, running 100 days in 28 centres, according to those same retrospectives. Samayam Telugu recalls a celebration of its success attended by Rajinikanth, Sridevi, K. Viswanath and M. S. Reddy, where Sridevi presented Chiranjeevi with a memento. Ilaiyaraaja’s songs were very popular. The film was also dubbed into Tamil as Raatshashan.

Where to watch Rakshasudu

We do not have a confirmed streaming listing for Rakshasudu (1986) on file. If we verify one with a platform, it will appear on this page.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Rakshasudu (1986 film) and the articles it cites, linked above; our own cast and crew records.