Manmadhudu

Manmadhudu (meaning “Cupid”) is a 2002 Telugu romantic comedy directed by K. Vijaya Bhaskar, who wrote it with Trivikram Srinivas, and produced by Nagarjuna under Annapurna Studios. Nagarjuna stars with Sonali Bendre and Anshu, and Devi Sri Prasad composed the music. Released on 20 December 2002, it was a commercial success, won the Nandi Award for Best Feature Film and has since become a cult favourite, its comic dialogue still quoted in memes.

What the story is about

Abhiram is a manager at an advertising agency who openly despises women, which is awkward, because his office is full of them. When his uncle Prasad, the company’s chairman, hires a spirited new assistant manager, Harika, Abhiram makes her life a misery, belittling her work and even bugging her desk to steal her idea for a lipstick advert. Fed up, Harika goes to Prasad to resign, and he persuades her to stay by telling her the story behind Abhiram’s bitterness. What follows is a running battle of wits between the two, which a business trip to Paris turns into something more complicated.

Cast

• Nagarjuna as Abhiram
• Sonali Bendre as Harika (voice dubbed by Sunitha)
• Anshu as Maheswari
• Chandra Mohan as Mohan Rao, Maheswari’s uncle
• Tanikella Bharani and Sudha as Abhiram’s parents, and M. Balaiah as his grandfather
• Brahmanandam as Suribabu Lavangam and Dharmavarapu Subramanyam as Balasubrahmanyam
• Sunil as Bunk Seenu and Jaya Prakash Reddy as his father
• Ranganath as Harika’s father and Tanish as her brother

How it was made

After the success of Nuvvu Naaku Nachav (2001), Nagarjuna offered Vijaya Bhaskar and Trivikram a new film, which they built around a hero who dislikes women, set in an advertising agency, a backdrop new to Telugu cinema. The story resembles Yaddanapudi Sulochana Rani’s novel Girija Kalyanam, and some scenes were inspired by What Women Want (2000). Art director Srinivasa Raju built the agency set at Annapurna Studios. The film was also shot in Austria, Paris and the Godavari districts; after the September 11 attacks the crew at first had permission to film only outside the Eiffel Tower, but Nagarjuna secured access and Manmadhudu is reported to be the first Indian film shot inside it. For the climax at Narasapuram, Nagarjuna jumped into the river himself, without a double. Manish Malhotra styled Sonali Bendre’s costumes.

Music

Devi Sri Prasad’s soundtrack was released on Sohan Audio on 6 December 2002 at a launch outside the Glass House at Annapurna Studios, attended by 450 winners of a Gemini TV contest. Sirivennela Sitarama Sastri wrote five of the six songs, including the unconventional “Don’t Marry”, with a pallavi and a free-metre narrative instead of the usual charanams. Telugu Cinema rated the tunes “average-to-good”.

Box office

The film was released with 90 prints. India Today describes it as a commercial success, and T2BLive lists a distributors’ share of ₹14 crore. Nagarjuna himself, in a 2019 interview with Baradwaj Rangan for Film Companion South, called it an “above average” grosser. A 4K version was re-released on 29 August 2023 for Nagarjuna’s birthday.

What critics said

Jeevi of Idlebrain.com gave it 4.5 out of 5 and called it “a must recommended hilarious film”. Sify said the story was “wafer thin” but well packaged, and called it a “Rip-Roaring Entertainer”. Kiran Nadella of Fullhyd.com (7.5 out of 10) said it might be one of the funniest films you have seen if you can bear “thirty minutes of echoing flashback”, and Telugu Cinema credited Trivikram’s “pen-power” for lifting a weak storyline.

Legacy, awards and other versions

Firstpost noted on its 15th anniversary that the film’s quotes and scenes have become part of popular culture, and the title has become closely associated with Nagarjuna. It won the Nandi Award for Best Feature Film (Gold), and Brahmanandam won the Filmfare Award for Best Comedian – Telugu. It was remade in Kannada as Aishwarya (2006), Deepika Padukone’s debut, and in Bengali as Priyotoma (2006), and was followed in 2019 by a spiritual successor, Manmadhudu 2.

Where to watch Manmadhudu

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

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Manmadhudu and the reviews, interviews and reports it cites, linked above; Wikidata; our own cast and crew records.