Rajakumarudu

Rajakumarudu (translated in promotional material as The Prince) is a 1999 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy film directed by K. Raghavendra Rao. It stars Mahesh Babu and Preity Zinta. The film was produced by C. Aswani Dutt under the Vyjayanthi Movies banner. Krishna made a guest appearance. The music was composed by Mani Sharma. The film was released on 30 July 1999.

Rajakumarudu
Poster
Directed by	K. Raghavendra Rao
Written by	Paruchuri Brothers (Dialogues)
Screenplay by	Satyanand
Produced by	C. Aswani Dutt
Starring	Mahesh Babu Preity Zinta
Cinematography	Ajayan Vincent
Edited by	Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Music by	Mani Sharma
Production company	Vyjayanthi Movies
Release date	30 July 1999 (1999-07-30)
Running time	162 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Raja Kumarudu is debut film of Mahesh Babu in a lead role after previous roles as a child actor. The film received positive reviews and was commercially successful.^[1][2][3] The film won two Nandi Awards.

Plot

Raj Kumar goes on a holiday to Khandala and stays with his uncle Dhananjay. He comes across Rani and falls for her. However, he ends up teasing her and she begins to despise him. She is determined to avoid him, but he won't leave her alone. Raj Kumar saves Rani from some thugs, and she is impressed. After spending some time together, she begins to like him and eventually love him.

Unfortunately his uncle has made other plans for him. He reveals the past of the hero's parents and his family. He mentions the challenge that he made with his in-laws to get the hero married to his daughter. Complying to this, the hero informs the heroine that their relationship needs to end there.

Going with his uncle to the village for his uncle's daughter, to his joy he sees that it's none other than Rani.

The rest of the movie revolves around the plot that is woven by him and his uncle to gain the heroine's hand and re-uniting the uncle with his family. This is done in a fun, comical way.

Cast

• Mahesh Babu as Raja
• Preity Zinta as Rani
• Krishna as Krishnamurthy
• Prakash Raj as Dhanunjay
• Jaya Prakash Reddy as Sarvarayudu
• Sumalatha as Rajyalakshmi, Dhanunjay's wife
• Asrani as Mumbai Police Inspector
• Srihari as Narsimharayudu
• Brahmanandam as Hyderabad Police Sub-Inspector Wagle
• M. S. Narayana as Police Constable
• Sajja Teja as Vengalla Rayudu

Soundtrack

Raja Kumarudu
Soundtrack album by Mani Sharma
Released	1999
Recorded	1999
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	30:33
Label	Supreme Music (Telugu) Aditya Music (Telugu) Saregama (Hindi)
Producer	Mani Sharma
Mani Sharma chronology
Iddaru Mitrulu (1999) Raja Kumarudu (1999) Seenu (1999)

Music was composed by Mani Sharma.

Original Tracklist

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Godari Gattupaina"	Chandrabose	Udit Narayan, Kavita Krishnamurthy	5:05
2.	"Enduke Praayamu"	Veturi	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Chitra	5:07
3.	"Rama Sakkanodamma"	Suddala Ashok Teja	Sukhwinder Singh, Chitra	5:41
4.	"Indurudo Chandurudo"	Veturi	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Chitra	4:34
5.	"Eppudeppudu"	Veturi	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Sujatha	4:50
6.	"Bollywood Balaraju"	Veturi	Shankar Mahadevan	5:15
Total length:				30:33

All lyrics are written by Ravinder Rawal and Dev Kohli

Hindi Tracklist

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Ganga Ke Ek Kinare"	Udit Narayan, Kavita Krishnamurthy	5:05
2.	"Sharmane Lagi"	Kumar Sanu, Anuradha Paudwal	5:07
3.	"Munda Pataka"	Sukhwinder Singh, Jaspinder Narula	5:41
4.	"Ab Tu Meri"	Vinod Rathod, Krishna Kumar, Poornima	4:34
5.	"Pyar Kar Shuru"	Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan	4:50
6.	"Aashiq Hai Naam Dosto"	Sonu Nigam	5:15
Total length:			30:33

Tamil Tracklist

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Karkandu Kannam"	5:05
2.	"Nenjile Poo Poothathu"	5:07
3.	"Rammanoda"	5:41
4.	"Anthiriyil"	4:34
5.	"Yeppa Ippadi"	4:50
6.	"Pattukul"	5:15
Total length:		30:33

^[4]

Release

Rajakumarudu released with 78 prints in 116 screens.^[5] Jeevi of Idlebrain.com wrote that "There are some excellent scenes in the second half that will make us realize how good is Mahesh at comedy. He is got perfect timing. He will the force to reckon with in the future".^[6]

Box-office

The film had a 50-day run in 80 centres and a 100-day run in 44 centres. Raja Kumarudu collected a share of ₹10.51 crore from Andhra Pradesh. It was dubbed in Hindi as Prince No. 1 and in Tamil as Kaadhal Vennila. The film was again dubbed and released theatrically in Tamil during January 2017 as Ivan Oru Thunichalkaran.^[7]

Awards

Nandi Awards^[8]

• Best Home - Viewing Feature film in 1999.
• Best Art Director - Srinivasa Raju

References

1. . CineGoer.com. 4 September 2007. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
2. . Idlebrain.com. 13 February 2003. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2022. Mahesh Babu's first film 'Raja Kumarudu' was a hit. His subsequent films Yuvaraju and Vamsee are flops.
3. (PDF). Zamin Ryot. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 September 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. Raaga.com. "Kadhal Vennila Songs Download, Kadhal Vennila Tamil MP3 Songs, Raaga.com Tamil Songs". www.raaga.com. from the original on 4 July 2023. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
5. "CineGoer.com - Box-Office Records And Collections - Maheshbabu's Debut Film Rajakumarudu". cinegoer.com. from the original on 22 June 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
6. Jeevi (30 July 1999). "Rajakumarudu - A review". Idlebrain.com. from the original on 3 December 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
7. "Ivan Oru ThunichalKaran || இவண் ஒரு துணிச்சல்காரன்". 28 January 2017. from the original on 28 January 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
8. "నంది అవార్డు విజేతల పరంపర (1964–2008)" [A series of Nandi Award Winners (1964–2008)] (PDF). Information & Public Relations of Andhra Pradesh. (PDF) from the original on 23 February 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2020.(in Telugu)