1945

1945 is a 2022 war drama written and directed by Sathyasiva and produced by S. N. Rajarajan of K Productions, shot simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil. Rana Daggubati stars as a young barrister in British-ruled Burma who joins Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army, with Regina Cassandra, Sathyaraj and Nassar. Yuvan Shankar Raja composed the music. Begun in 2016, the film stalled for years over a dispute between the producer and its lead actor, and the Telugu version finally reached cinemas on 7 January 2022.

What the story is about

In 1945, news reaches Burma that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has died in a plane crash. The British police there plan to crush the INA, which itself is preparing a rebellion with Burma as its base, and the INA’s ranks are split over whether to believe the news. Adhi, an active member, insists that Netaji is still alive, but nobody listens. Disheartened, he looks back on how he came to join the movement: in 1942 he arrived in Burma from India as a promising barrister to work under Subbayya, a leading lawyer friendly with the British, and fell in love with Subbayya’s daughter Anandhi. What he saw of British officers torturing and robbing his compatriots drew him to the INA, at the cost of Subbayya’s approval.

Cast

• Rana Daggubati as Adhi
• Regina Cassandra as Anandhi
• Nassar as Subbayya, her father
• Sathyaraj as Ramalingaiah
• Saptagiri as Adhi’s friend Krishna (Kaali Venkat in the Tamil version)
• Rekha Suresh as Anandhi’s mother

Making the film

Sathyasiva began writing the film in mid-2015 and first approached Jiiva for the lead, but could not find a producer. S. N. Rajarajan, who held rights to Baahubali: The Conclusion, then backed it as a bilingual; Rana Daggubati was cast through his closeness to the producer, and Regina Cassandra was chosen after several actresses were considered. Sathya Ponmar shot the film, Gopi Krishna edited it and E. Thiyagarajan was art director. The Tamil version was first titled Madai Thiranthu. Filming began in Kochi on 19 August 2016, with large period sets built along the beach, and a schedule was completed in Kochi and Sri Lanka in October 2017.

Music

Yuvan Shankar Raja’s soundtrack, his third collaboration with Sathyasiva after Kazhugu (2012) and Kazhugu 2 (2018), has lyrics by Mohana Raja and Arul Kamaraj; Muzik 247 holds the audio rights.

The dispute and release

When the first look was released, Rana Daggubati wrote on Twitter that the producer had defaulted on his payments and that the film was “unfinished”; Rajarajan replied that it was the director’s call whether the film was complete. A planned release on 24 January 2020 was put off indefinitely over the financial dispute, a date of 31 December 2021 was also dropped, and the Telugu version opened on 7 January 2022. The Tamil version went straight to the streaming platform Astro Vaanavil in mid-2022. Wikipedia does not record the film’s box-office performance.

What critics said

Srivathsan Nadadhur of OTTplay gave it 1 out of 5, calling it “one giant bore” and warning readers not to be “misled by the big names”.

Where to watch 1945

We do not have a confirmed streaming platform for the Telugu version of 1945 on file. The OTT details on this page will be updated when a platform’s own listing confirms it.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on 1945 and the review it cites, linked above; Wikidata; our own cast and crew records.