Rajakumarudu

Rajakumarudu (promoted in English as The Prince) is a 1999 Telugu romantic comedy directed by K. Raghavendra Rao and produced by C. Aswani Dutt under Vyjayanthi Movies. It was Mahesh Babu‘s first film as a lead actor, after several roles as a child artist, and he stars opposite Preity Zinta, with Prakash Raj and a guest appearance by his father, Krishna. Mani Sharma composed the music. Released on 30 July 1999, it received positive reviews, was a commercial success and won two Nandi Awards.

What the story is about

Raj Kumar goes on holiday to Khandala to stay with his uncle Dhananjay and falls for Rani. He teases her, she decides she cannot stand him, and he refuses to leave her alone. Meanwhile she becomes fascinated by a mysterious young man in a cowboy costume, without realising who he is. Just as the two finally come together, Raj Kumar’s uncle reveals the history of Raj’s family, and a promise that he must marry his uncle’s daughter. From there the film turns into a family comedy about winning over a household and reuniting a divided family; the surprise of who the bride is happens early, but we will leave it for the film.

Cast

• Mahesh Babu as Raja (credited as Mahesh)
• Preity Zinta as Rani
• Prakash Raj as Dhananjay
• Sumalatha as Rajyalakshmi, Srihari as Narsimharayudu and Jaya Prakash Reddy as Sarvarayudu
• Brahmanandam and M. S. Narayana as police officers; Venu Madhav as a college mate
• Krishna in an uncredited guest appearance as Krishnamurthy

Release and reception

The film was released with 78 prints in 116 screens. Jeevi of Idlebrain.com praised Mahesh Babu’s comic timing and predicted that he would be “the force to reckon with in the future”. Griddaluru Gopalrao of Zamin Ryot was less impressed, calling it “all old stuff” and an ordinary film, though he found the Paruchuri brothers’ dialogue hilarious.

Box office

According to Wikipedia, Rajakumarudu ran for 50 days in 80 centres and 100 days in 44 centres; CineGoer.com documented its box-office records. It was dubbed in Hindi as Prince No. 1 and in Tamil as Kaadhal Vennila, and a second Tamil dub, Ivan Oru Thunichalkaran, was released in theatres in January 2017.

Awards

The film won the Nandi Award for Best Home-Viewing Feature Film for 1999, and Srinivasa Raju won the Nandi Award for Best Art Director.

Where to watch Rajakumarudu

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

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