Dammu

Plot

Rama Chandra (NTR Jr) is an orphan who leads a simple life along with his friend (played by Ali). He falls in love with Sathya (Trisha Krishnan), who is a very rich girl. Sathya imposes a condition that Rama Chandra's family history and pedigree are very important. At this very moment, Rama Chandra comes to know that a rich and powerful royal family is on the lookout to adopt an heir and Rama Chandra seizes the chance. But once he goes there, he realises that things are not as simple as they seem. The family has a violent past and a bitter dispute with another powerful family (headed by Nassar). He also realises that thousands of people in the area are now dependent on him for their very survival. He also discovers that he is the real heir to the family. Rama Chandra does not like violence and he tries his best to solve the problems peacefully. But the rival gang does not give him a chance. Vexed with the violence Rama Chandra kills Nasser's two sons and opens eyes of Nasser by placing a sword on Nasser's third son. In climax, Nasser realises that he was wrong and apologizes to all. Rama Chandra becomes the hero of the village.

Cast

Production

Dhammu has music scored by M. M. Keeravani. Shruti Hassan, who was originally signed to play the female lead, walked out citing date issues. Later the producers approached Kajal Aggarwal who also couldn't accommodate bulk dates for the film. The producers finalised Trisha Krishnan as the first female lead. According to reports, Bhanupriya, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Venu Thottempudi and Subhalekha Sudhakar play supporting roles.

Release

The Telugu and Tamil versions released on 27 April 2012. Dhammu released on approximately 1400 screens worldwide which was a record in Tollywood. According to CNN-IBN Dhammu is a starting point of a major blow to the collections of Kannada films in Karnataka. It released in approx of 120+ theatres in Karnataka which is considered to be a record by out of state movie.

Critical reception

Deccan Chronicle wrote: "Dammu (Valour), as one of the Telugu films that made high on action and low on contents". Sify wrote: "Boyapati uses the same formula of Tollywood action movies with good dialogues, high voltage fight sequences and wraps ups with interesting twist and NTR's charged up performance". Rediff wrote: "Director Boyapati Seenu's new film Dammu has an outdated and clichéd storyline, regressive content, and mindless and excessive violence".

Box office

The film completed 50 days in 25 direct centres on 15 June 2012. but it couldn't sustain for a long-run. Even though film had the worst talk and collected a share of 29 crores worldwide. The film completed 100 days on 4 August 2012.

Pre-release revenues

Dammu satellite rights were sold to Zeetv group for ₹6.6 crore (US$1.0 million), the highest buy-over for any film in 2012. After selling distribution rights, Dammu earned pre-release revenue up to ₹45 crore (US$7.0 million).

Home media

The VCDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs of the film were released through Bhavani Company into the market on 10 August 2012, six days after completing 100 days of the film.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was released on 29 March 2012 at Shilpakala Vedika in Hyderabad. M. M. Keeravani's music label, Vel Records, secured the film's audio rights. The lyrics for all the songs were written by Chandrabose.