17 Mar 2025
Revisiting Choodalani Vundi (1998): Review + Interesting Facts
Credits
Banner: Vyjayanthi Movies
Cast: Megastar Chiranjeevi, Soundarya, Anjala Zhaveri, Prakash Raj, MAster Teja Sajja, Authi Prasad, Bramanandham, MS Narayana, Brahmaji, Venu Madhav, Bandla Ganesh, Dhulipala Sitarama Sastry
Music: Mani Sharma
Cinematography: Chota K Naidu
Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Art Direction: Thota Tharani
Fights: Vijayan
Lyrics: Veturi & Chandrabose
Choreography: Saroj Khan, Raghava Lawrence, Raju Sundaram
Costume Design: Manish Malhotra
Producer: C. Aswini Dutt
Release date: August 27th, 1998
First title of the movie was Kaalika, alternative title Kolkata, Kolkata Kalika since its Kolkata backdrop, hence he started the movie with Kali Matha title card and credits
Chiranjeevi was the one who put the title Choodalani Undi
Coming to Railway Station scene, Gunashekar wrote about a 20 page booklet like a novel to write the scene. More action, literally no dialogues. He said it was going to be like this and he learned to write scenes from DV Natasha Raju. He told Chiru garu and he laughed and said this is a scene for Pawan Kalyan like in Tholi Prema, why are you doing it with me, because its on you its like this, for him it would be different, but lastly he enjoyed it a lot
Then he told Chota K Naidu and he Las got very excited bhale undi. Coming to filming of it, Aswnini Dutt suggested Ramoji Film City train station. But Gunahsekar wanted live location Nampally Railway Station with live crowd and ambiance, Aswini Dutt got shocked, taking CHiru to Nampally scene.
Ramoji Film. City is fine, but it has to be realistic. Dutt felt it would be very difficult. They got permission but hoe would be control the crowd and then how are we going to film it become a huge challenge. 2-3 days they had a lot of discussions about it
Chota K Naidu and his team perfectly planned all the lighting and camera movements etc, got all the shots ready.
Filmed 3 days at NAmpally and then 1 day at Kachiguda was the plan.
Aswini Dutt acted as a latti master as well to control the crowd
Finally they completed Namapally scenes in 2 days with planning and then 1 day at Kachiguda
Choodalanu Undi is the first Telugu movie to be filmed in Kolkata, Kolkata apartment was done in Annapurna 7 acres
Yamaha Nagari - Raju Sundaram, Rama Chilakamma and Oh Maria done by legendary Saroj Khan
Regarding the inclusion of Hariharan, Udit Narayan, Shankar MAhadevan, it was collective decision between Gunashekar and Mani Sharma. He specifically told Mani Sharma that the sounds should be new, from Iliayaraja to AR Rahman and brought a new trend of introducing new singers, composing and engineering, told him the sound should be ultimate sound should be new for audience
Until then only dubbing songs heard Udit Narayan, Hariharan, and Shankar Mahadevan, nobody sang straight songs in Telugu
Automatically first choice is Balu garu for any song, but to take it to the next level we have to use new singers for the other songs, obviously for Rama Chilakamma Chiru and Aswnini Dutt opposed Udit Narayan for it, even balu wanted to sing it, but they objected, he got angry, and then they sang it with Udit Narayan sang it and the rest is history
Dialogues were written by Divakar Babu, he gave him a script book, he loved writing for Chiru and Soundarya scenes, Chiru did improvisation for all their poetic conversations
Choodalani Undi collected 12.2 crores share and just missed industry hit status, ran for 100 days in 63 centers, all time record and first Telugu movie to run in more than 60 centers for 100 days, ran for 175 days and was the first South Indian film to be covered on India Today Delhi cover page, industry record and highest grossing South Indian fllm at that point in time
In JyothiChitra magazine, Chota Prasad journalist asked for the 20 pages and he put the first page with his handwriting and then JoythiChitra printed the rest
During the 100 days function in Vijayawada, Chiru bought the entire team gold chains
