Adavi Ramudu

Adavi Ramudu (transl. “Forest Ramu”) is a 1977 Telugu action film directed by K. Raghavendra Rao, who also wrote the screenplay, starring N. T. Rama Rao with Jaya Prada and Jayasudha. Set in a forest where a gang smuggles timber and forest produce, it was released on 28 April 1977 and became one of the biggest hits in Telugu cinema up to that time, running for a full year in four centres. It won the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Telugu, put NTR back at the top and made Raghavendra Rao’s name as a director.

What the story is about

Dharma Raju and his son Nagaraju run a racket smuggling and illegally transporting produce from the forest. Ramu stands up to them and rouses the villagers to fight back. Padma, the daughter of the local forest officer, falls in love with Ramu, while Chilakamma, a tribal woman, loves him as a brother. Dharma Raju brings in a man called Jaggu to get Ramu out of the forest. There is more to Ramu than he lets on, but that is for the second half of the film to reveal.

Cast and crew

• N. T. Rama Rao as Ramu
• Jaya Prada as Padma
• Jayasudha as Chilakamma
• Nagabhushanam as Dharma Raju
• Kaikala Satyanarayana as Nagaraju
• Gummadi as Raja Shekaram
• Jaggayya
• Raja Babu as Bheemanna
• Sridhar as Jaggu
• Baby Rohini as Gowri

Director: K. Raghavendra Rao. Script and dialogue: Jandhyala. Music: K. V. Mahadevan, with lyrics by Veturi. Cinematography: A. Vincent. Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao. Producers: Nekkanti Veera Venkata Satyanarayana and Arumilli Suryanarayana (Satya Chitra). Runtime: 143 minutes.

Making of the film

The production history is told in a Telugucinema.com retrospective. The success of Rajkumar’s forest-set Kannada film Gandhada Gudi (1972) made NTR want a similar subject, and after Prema Bandham (1976) failed, the Satya Chitra producers approached him. They chose Raghavendra Rao, then just starting out, whom NTR knew as an assistant on Pandava Vanavasam (1965). Jayasudha, who had worked with the director on Raja (1976), only realised late on that hers was the second female lead, but went ahead out of faith in him, and later received fan letters urging her not to accept such roles again.

Apart from an opening scene shot in a Madras studio on 9 January 1977, the film was made in the Mudumalai forest. NTR gave 35 days of dates outside Madras, a first for him, and it was his first colour film in CinemaScope, shot with a lens imported from Japan. With only three government guesthouses nearby, the crew spent 50 days building accommodation for a 300-strong unit and brought supplies in daily from Mysore. Jayasudha recalled two accidents: she and Jaya Prada were thrown from startled elephants, and later hurt when a horse-cart axle broke during a chase.

Box office

The records are well documented. According to the Telugucinema.com retrospective, it was the first film to collect more than ₹80 lakh in its first 50 days and the first to reach ₹1 crore within 67 days, and it ran 100 days in 32 centres, 175 days in 16 and 200 days in 8. It completed a full year in four centres, including Hyderabad, Vizag, Tirupati and Vijayawada, which the same retrospective calls a first for an Indian film within one state. Idlebrain noted in 2005 that its 161-day continuous run in Secunderabad was still a record there. Cinegoer describes it as the highest-grossing Telugu film of the 1970s until Premabhisekham (1981).

Music, awards and legacy

K. V. Mahadevan’s song “Aaresukoboyi” was recreated for the 2004 film that borrowed the title, Adavi Ramudu. Besides the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Telugu, A. Vincent won the Nandi Award for Best Cinematographer.

Where to watch Adavi Ramudu

We do not have a confirmed streaming listing for Adavi Ramudu (1977) on file. If we verify one with a platform, it will appear on this page.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Adavi Ramudu (1977 film) and the retrospectives it cites, linked above; our own cast and crew records.