Aadi (2002 film)

Story

The story is set in the backdrop of Rayalaseema. The film opens with Veera Reddy (Ahuti Prasad) returning from USA after a long gap with his wife and 8-year-old kid Aadi Kesava Reddy. Veera Reddy's deceased father was a well-known factionist in that area and owned a land of 4,000 acres (16 km²). While leaving for USA, Veera Reddy gave the responsibility of managing this land to Nagi Reddy (Rajan P Dev). Now back in India, Veera Reddy realises that Nagi Reddy is misusing his power. He wants to donate all his land to the 2000 families staying in that village. When Nagi Reddy comes to know of this charity giveaway, he attacks Veera Reddy, killing him and his wife. Veeranna (Chalapati Rao), a trusted lieutenant of Veera Reddy, takes the kid Aadi Kesava Reddy and escapes to the city (Hyderabad). After the murders, Veera Reddy's trusted people are put in jail with a prison sentence of 14 years.

Then the film titles roll ending with the caption '12 years later'. We see the grown up Aadi (Jr. NTR) studying in a college. He falls in love with Nandu (Keerthi Chawla) and vice versa. Veeranna has raised Aadi in Hyderabad as a fun-loving boy but he is also hot tempered young man. Later on, it is revealed that Nandu is the daughter of Nagi Reddy.

Completing her studies, Nandu returns to her hometown at her father's place. After a hiatus of 14 years, Aadi re-enters the Rayalaseema along with other trusted members of his father who are released from jail. Aadi wants to take revenge on Nagi Reddy and get back all the land so that he can distribute it to the villagers. The rest of the film deals with how Aadi achieves his objective.

This movie was released in 118 centres and ran for 100 days in 98 centres, also 175 days in 18 centres.

Crew

Production

Vinayak: While I was doing a film with Sagar gaaru, Bellamkonda Suresh gaaru used to come to the sets. He watched me assisting Sagar gaaru and promised me that he'll give me a break definitely. After Paaduthaa Theeyagaa, I was not doing much as an assistant and thus started working on my own scripts. When he offered me a film, I was thrilled and narrated the story to NTR. NTR liked the subject - it was a love story - but Kodali Nani didn't like it. After a couple of days, I narrated another story that was instantly liked and taken to the sets, and that was the story of Aadi. We went to Mumbai for the heroine hunt... In fact, we saw Arti Agarwal but she just signed on the dotted line for Nuvvu Naaku Nacchaav! We also considered Ayesha Takia but our cameraman felt that she wasn't a right choice for NTR. Seeing the Fair & Lovely ad, I felt Trisha will be an ideal choice but my sister didn't like her. We dropped that idea too with a primary belief that if ladies didn't like much, then it will just not work out. While in Mumbai still, we also met Sada also there but she'd have been so lean beside NTR, we thought and we dropped her too. During all this, the shooting was already in progress! Thus, we had to find just someone.that's how it all happened.

Reception