Ye Maaya Chesave

Ye Maaya Chesave (English: What Magic Have You Done?) is a 2010 Telugu-language romantic drama film written and directed by Gautham Menon, with dialogues by Umarji Anuradha. The film stars Naga Chaitanya and debutant Samantha Ruth Prabhu in the lead roles. It was produced by Manjula Ghattamaneni under the banner Indira Productions and features a critically acclaimed soundtrack and background score composed by A. R. Rahman. Other credits include cinematography by Manoj Paramahamsa, dialogues by Umarji Anuradha and editing by Anthony Gonsalves. The lead actors of the movie Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu are set to become couples in real life as well.

The film was shot along with the Tamil version Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa which was shot first with a completely different cast and climax. The Satellite Rights were sold to Zee Telugu for ₹3.5 crore (US$550,000). This film is Menon's second Telugu venture, after the critically successful Gharshana.

Upon release the music, scored by two-time Academy Award winner A. R. Rahman, became a huge success and gained Cult status over the years. Apart from highly successful soundtrack, the background score of the film is hailed as one of Rahman's best works.

Ye Maaya Chesave portrays the complicated relationship between a Telugu Hindu assistant director, Karthik, and a Malayali Saint Thomas Christian girl, Jessie whom he falls in love with. Jessie is torn between her love for Karthik and her family, who is steadfast in their disapproval of him. This results in a volatile relationship until Jessie leaves him without an explanation. They accidentally meet after a couple of years and the movie takes a different turn.

Ye Maaya chesave was made with a moderate budget of ₹12.5 crore (US$1.9 million)

The Tamil version was made following much speculation that Gautham Menon was set to remake it with Manjula's brother, Mahesh Babu. Shooting continued through the latter part of 2009, with the film garnering significant media interest, with schedules in the United States, with Princeton University being used as a backdrop for song picturisation.

Plot

Karthik (Naga Chaitanya) is a mechanical engineering graduate but aspires to become a filmmaker. Karthik's family rents the ground floor of a two-storeyed house which belongs to a Kerala christian family who are very conservative Syrian Catholic family from Alappuzha, Kerala, who live upstairs. Jessie (Samantha), their daughter, is 2 years older to Karthik. She has a brother Jerry(Sudheer Babu). When Karthik meets Jessie for the first time, he falls in love with her. Karthik expresses his love one day to her, who is afraid of speaking to men around her strict father, and ends up angering Jessie. Later Jessie goes to Alappuzha, her grandparents' place. Karthik gets to know this from his sister and goes to Alappuzha, along with his friend Krishnudu, where he gets introduces to her family as his classmate. Then Karthik tells her that they can be good friends. After coming to know from her that she is going back to Hyderabad alone, he decides to turn the friendship in to love in the train journey. In the train he kisses her for which she slaps him and later the two meet several times afterwards and Jessie begins to admit that she likes Karthik but wants to refrain from any problems because she knows her father won't accept a Hindu marrying their daughter. Now, Jerry finds that they like each other and in the fight that follows we come to know that Karthik is a part time boxer where he beats up Jerry and his friends. Her parents learn about their affair with this fight and arrange a marriage for her. But at the wedding, she refuses to marry the groom, Roy Thomas, displeasing everyone in her family. Karthik and Jessie continue to love each other without the knowledge of their parents. Suddenly, Jessie is forced by her father to marry and seeks Karthik's help, who was in Goa for a film shooting. Busy Karthik is unable to attend to her calls and messages; Jessie is unable to reach him. After a tense phone call from Jessie, Karthik goes back one night to check on her. An angry and hurt Jessie makes a final decision to break up with Karthik because of her father's strong disapproval of their love.

Later on, Karthik learns that Jessie got married and is settled abroad. Two years later, Karthik meets Nandini (Sapan Saran), who falls in love with him. She is rejected by Karthik who cites his previous affair with Jessie whom he can not get over. He then comes up with a script for his first film, which happens to be his own love story. He calls upon Silambarasan Rajendar as the film's protagonist and Trisha Krishnan (who are leads in the Tamil version of the film) as the female lead. The film is eventually titled Jessie.

He sees Jessie three years later in the U.S. and thinks she is married. She reveals that she is not. She refused to marry anyone her parents set up because they rejected Karthik. Out of anger, her parents leave. They then get married at a Hindu temple and a church. The film ends at a theater where they watch Jessie.

Cast

Naga Chaitanya as Karthik Naidu

Samantha Ruth Prabhu as Jessie Thekkekuttu

Krishnudu as himself (Karthik's friend)

Devan as Joseph Thekkekuttu

Sudheer Babu as Jerry Thekkekuttu

Sanjay Swaroop as Raghava Rao Sivakumar

Surekha Vani as Mrs. Raghava Rao Sivakumar

Lakshmi Ramakrishnan as Teresa Thekkekuttu

Sapan Saran as Nandhini

Puri Jagannadh as Himself

Gautham Menon as a Guest Appearance

Silambarasan Rajendar in a Guest Appearance

Trisha Krishnan in a Guest Appearance

Ganesh Janardhanan in an Appearance in "Manasaa"

Mehraz Pasha as Dev

Subbalakshmi

Soundtrack

Academy Award winning composer A. R. Rahman composed the soundtrack and background score of the film. Ye Maaya Chesave / Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya, marked the beginning of a collaboration between Rahman and Gautham Menon. The album consists of seven tracks, with Telugu lyrics penned by Anantha Sreeram. Rahman's compositions for the Tamil version were retained without any change, in the Telugu version.

Rahman won his first Filmfare Award in Telugu for this highly successful album. Rahman reused the same tunes for the Hindi remake of the film (Ekk Deewana Tha), also directed by Gautham Menon.

Satellite Rights of the film were sold for ₹3.5 crore (US$550,000) and Music rights for ₹1 crore (US$160,000).

Production

After the announcement of Gautham Menon's Tamil project, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, Manjula Ghattamaneni (Producer of the movie) approached Gautham Menon to do a Telugu version of the same, with Naga Chaitanya in the lead. Gautham, who was initially hesitant to do another version, later agreed to Manjula's proposal and scheduled the shoots of many portions simultaneously.

The lead pair Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu played guest roles in the Tamil version whereas Trisha Krishnan and Silambarasan made a cameo in this version. Telugu director Puri Jagannadh appears as himself in a guest role.