Lakshmi (2006 film)

Lakshmi
Theatrical poster
Directed by	V. V. Vinayak
Screenplay by	V. V. Vinayak
Story by	Siva Akula
Produced by	Nallamalupu Bujji
Starring	Venkatesh Nayanthara Charmme Kaur
Cinematography	Chota K. Naidu
Edited by	Gautham Raju
Music by	Songs: Ramana Gogula Background Score: Mani Sharma
Production company	Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Productions
Release date	14 January 2006 (2006-01-14)
Running time	161 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Budget	₹12 crore[1]
Box office	est. ₹20–22 crore[1][2]

Lakshmi is a 2007 Indian Telugu-language action drama film produced by Nallamalupu Bujji on Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Productions on banner, directed by V. V. Vinayak and cinematography by Chota K. Naidu. Starring Venkatesh, Nayanthara and Charmme Kaur. The music of the movie was composed by Ramana Gogula. The film was Blockbuster at the box office and also marked Nayantara's Telugu debut.^[1]

The film was remade in Bengali in 2007 named Sangharsha directed by Sujit Guha starring Prosenjit, Rajatava Dutta, Swastika Mukherjee, Sayantani Ghosh and in Bengali Bangladesh in 2008 named Pita Matar Amanot .

Lakshmi Narayana, the MD of Lakshmi Group of Companies, is an elder son in a family with two brothers and two sisters. He is very strict about disciplining his brothers so that they become the men that their father wanted them to be, to the point of beating them for coming home drunk. He owns a factory that is worth hundreds of crores. Shailaja a.k.a. Shailu, an employee in Lakshmi's company, has a huge crush on him. Janardhan, a former employee of Lakshmi Industries who was accused of forgery, plans to take revenge on Lakshmi by creating divisions in his family. Soon, Lakshmi's sister falls in love with a man, and he is accepted by Lakshmi, with the marriage concluding grandly. It is later revealed that the man is Janardhan's nephew. This leads to Lakshmi revealing to his siblings that he and his sister (the youngest of the five) were adopted by their parents at a young age as they were orphans who were being ill-treated by their uncles and aunts. All this leads to the splitting of the siblings with Lakshmi and his sister being thrown out of the house by their younger brothers. The people standing beside Lakshmi are all the people in his factory and his other sister. Lakshmi even ends up working in his factory for all this. He even moves into a small house with his sister, where he is later joined by his mother. Later, it is revealed that Lakshmi had fallen in love with a girl named Nandini earlier, who was the niece of his foster father. Nandini was threatened by a young man who was the son of a Kolkata-based don named Rayudu. Lakshmi beats up the guy and sends him into a coma, which earns him Rayudu's wrath. The rest of the story is about how Lakshmi stands up to all these people together.

Jyothika was signed as the lead heroine, but was refused the offers due to her marriage preparations.^[3] She was later replaced by Nayanthara. The film was launched on 24 August 2005.^[4] A fight sequence was shot at Gachibowli factory and two songs were picturised at New Zealand.^[5]

Music composed by Ramana Gogula. Music released on ADITYA Music Company.

Indiaglitz gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and said "V V Vinayak's direction is on safe lines. He keeps to the linear path, without taking any chances. He knows whom he is catering to and delivers what he promised".^[6] Jeevi of idlebrain.com gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and said "First half of the film is OK and the scenes before interval are good. The second half divulges into a entirely different flashback episode. There are certain good moments in the film and has got orientation towards masses and family crowds. However, the VV Vinayak could not blend in Venkatesh’s family image and Vinayak’s mass taking in a smooth way. The biggest advantage of this film is that Lakshmi is the only mass film for the entire season of Sankranthi which gives good market penetration in C and D centers as well in the first week itself".^[7] In the 50 days of function at Eluru, the hero Venkatesh said"The success of Lakshmi film encouraged me a lot. The success of the film go to the entire unit of Lakshmi. I am happy to have delivered many hits in my career spanning 20 years from Kaliyuga Pandavulu to Lakshmi. People started calling me Lakshmi Bava after the release of this film."^[8]

The film was released in 316 screens, including 284 from then Andhra Pradesh.^[9] The film collected Rs.8 crores in its opening week.^[10] Lakshmi collected around ₹22 crore according to Sify.^[2] It had a 50-day run in 215 centres. The film was dubbed in Tamil under the same title.^[11] The film had a 100-day run in 94 centres.^[12]

• Venu Madhav won Nandi Award for Best Male Comedian for his role in this film.^[13]

• Lakshmi at IMDb