''Azad'' () is a 2000 Indian

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

-language

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without Right, legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a pers ...

action thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

written and directed by

Thirupathisamy Thirupathisamy was an Indian film director, known for his works in Telugu cinema and Tamil cinema. After making his debut in 1998 with the successful ''Ganesh'', he has gone on to make other box office hits including '' Azad'' and ''Narasimha''. ...

, and produced by C. Ashwini Dutt under

Vyjayanthi Movies Vyjayanthi Movies is an Indian Production company, film production company established in 1974 by C. Aswani Dutt. It is one of the biggest film production houses in Telugu cinema. Vyjayanthi Movies is especially known for its big-budget product ...

. It stars

Nagarjuna Akkineni Akkineni Nagarjuna Rao (born 29 August 1959), known mononymously as Nagarjuna, is an Indian actor, film producer, television presenter, and entrepreneur. Nagarjuna has acted predominantly in Telugu, along with a few Hindi and Tamil language fil ...

Soundarya K. S. Sowmya (18 July 1972 – 17 April 2004), better known by her stage name Soundarya, was an Indian actress who worked predominantly in Telugu_cinema, Telugu films and has also worked in Kannada, Tamil language, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam f ...

Shilpa Shetty Shilpa Shetty Kundra (born Ashwini Shetty; Née Shetty; 8 June 1975) is an Indian actress who works mainly in Hindi-language films. Shetty made her screen debut in the thriller ''Baazigar'' (1993) which garnered her nominations for two Filmfare ...

and music composed by

Mani Sharma Mani may refer to: Geography * Maní, Casanare, a town and municipality in Casanare Department, Colombia * Mani, Chad, a town and sub-prefecture in Chad * Mani, Evros, a village in northeastern Greece * Mani, Karnataka, a village in Dakshina ...

. The film completed 100 days run in 4 centres and won four

Nandi Awards The Nandi Awards are the awards that recognise the excellence in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre and Telugu television, and Lifetime achievements in Indian cinema. Presented annually by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the award is named after ...

. It was loosely remade in Tamil as ''

Velayudham ''Velayudham'' is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language superhero film written and directed by Mohan Raja. It stars Vijay in titular role with Genelia in the lead, while Hansika, Santhanam, Saranya Mohan, Soori, Abhimanyu Singh, and Vineet Kuma ...

'' (2011) and in Kannada as ''Bhagath''. Besides a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

remake, the film was dubbed into

as ''Kurukshetram ''.

Plot

Anjali, a journalist witnesses the murder of a fellow journalist who had discovered evidence against a mafia boss, Deva, and wants to sue him for his colleague's murder. Anjali is harassed by Deva when he discovers that she has the evidence. Deva is the most influential person in the region who runs ''Hindu Seva Samithi'', but in reality, he is an undercover

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

on a mission to release their terrorist group head imprisoned by the state administration. Deva is a

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

devotee who teaches the

Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; sa, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, lit=The Song by God, translit=śrīmadbhagavadgītā;), often referred to as the Gita (), is a 700- verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic ''Mahabharata'' (c ...

to every human he meets. Anjali happens to see an accident in which a bunch of Deva's henchmen dies. She takes this opportunity to create a character and name after the freedom fighter " Azad". She writes a letter that Azad has done this assassination to end crime in the city and state. The word spreads like wildfire that there is a man called "Azad", who is the rescuer of a common man. A man named Chandra Sekhar Azad, has a widowed mother, a sister named Kaveri, and a fiancée named Kanaka Mahalakshmi to take care of. As Kaveri's marriage is fixed, Azad goes to

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, to get the five lakhs he saved in a

chit fund A chit fund is a type of rotating savings and credit association system practiced in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan other Asian countries. Chit fund schemes may be organized by financial institutions, or informally among friends, relative ...

company. There, he happens to be involved in a few bomb-blasting incidents and rescue incidents and avoids all the bomb blasts and crimes without his knowledge. People start to think that he is the "Azad". Anjali meets him and explains to him her mission of ending crime in the state. However, Azad is more interested in retrieving money from the chit fund company and going back to his home to marry off his sister. He refuses to enact the role and take the responsibility of the legendary character "Azad". But later on, the chit fund company turns out to be bogus, which was managed by Deva, to generate finance for the smuggling of ammunition to

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Upon seeing the victims of the chit fund company committing suicide, Azad wears the mask of 'Azad' to stop Deva's mission. All these incidents make Deva extremely frustrated, so he kills and blasts Kaveri at her wedding. Azad also learns that Deva is not a Hindu, but an Indian Mujahideen terrorist under the guise of a Hindu and is on a mission to destroy India. Deva demands the state administration release of their militant leader in exchange for the lives of train passengers hijacked by Deva en route to Pakistan via

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

, India. Sameer, an IPS officer requests for a chance to fight them off instead of exchanging lives who would kill more people if released. Deva provokes Sameer that being a Muslim man, he is opposing his jihad. After Deva tries shooting him with ''Pakistan made bullet, he kills himself with his service revolver,'' just as freedom fighter Azad escaped the English bullet. Azad now goes alone and gets badly beaten up by Deva. After Deva lashes out that he would destroy India, Azad gets up and kills Deva. He then reunites with his family.

Cast

as Chandra Sekhar Azad *

as Mahalakshmi *

as Anjali *

Raghuvaran Raghuvaran Velayutham (11 December 1958 – 19 March 2008) was an Indian actor who predominantly acted in films made in South India. He has acted in more than 200 Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. According to the ''Hindustan T ...

as Deva/Dawood *

Prakash Raj Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai; 26 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam-language films, he is the recipient of several ...

as Inspector Saleem *

Brahmanandam Kanneganti Brahmanandam (born 1 February 1956), known mononymously as Brahmanandam, is an Indian actor, comedian, impersonator, and voice actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He is particularly known for his comic perfor ...

as Thief *

Kalairani Kalairani Indian actress who has worked in many Tamil films and as a performer with the Koothu-P-Pattarai theatre group. Filmography Serials * ''Panchavan Kaadu'' (2014) (Tamil) * ''Unarchigal'' (2014) (Tamil) * '' Nandini'' (2018) (Tami ...

as Azad's mother *

Sujitha Sujitha (born 12 July 1982) is an Indian actress who works in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam TV serials. She is known for portraying "Dhanam" in ''Pandian Stores'' and in Kerala she is popular for portraying "Unnimaya" in the Asianet TV serial '' ...

as Kaveri *

Nutan Prasad Tadinada Varaprasad popularly known as Nutan Prasad (12 December 1945 – 30 March 2011) was an Indian actor who predominantly worked in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He was a native of Kaikaluru, Andhra Pradesh, India. He started his film ...

as Anjali's father *

Raghunatha Reddy Raghunatha Reddy is an Indian actor from Andhra Pradesh. He acted in more than 370 films. Apart from Telugu, he also acted in Tamil, Hindi and Bhojpuri films. He appears in Telugu TV serials also. Early life He was born in Vijayawada to the cou ...

as Mahalakshmi's father *

Tanikella Bharani Tanikella Bharani (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, poet, playwright and director who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has worked as an actor in more than 750 films, including some in Tamil and Hindi; while he was ...

as Kanaka Raju *

Ananth Babu Punyamurthula Anant, known by his stage name Ananth Babu, is an Indian actor and comedian, known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He is the brother of noted comedians Raja Babu and Chitti Babu. Personal life Ananth Babu was ...

as School teacher * Venu Madhav as Citizen *

Dharmavarapu Subramanyam Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam (20 September 1954 – 7 December 2013) was a popular Indian actor, comedian and film director who worked in Telugu cinema. He was established as one of the highly paid and top most leading comedians in Telugu film in ...

as Editor *

M. S. Narayana M. S. Narayana (16 April 1951–23 January 2015) was an Indian actor and comedian who worked in Telugu cinema. He died on 23 January 2015 due to organ failure in Hyderabad, India. Career Narayana has over 750 films to his credit. His debut film ...

as Constable *

Banerjee Banerjee or Bandyopadhyay is a surname of Brahmins originating from the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent and from Bangladesh. Lineage and ancestry Banerjees are from the ancient Shandilya Gotra, which means all Banerjees are descended f ...

as Banerjee *

L. B. Sriram L. B. Sriram (born Lanka Bhadradri Sri Ramachandra Moorthy; 30 May 1952) is an Indian actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, and thespian known for his works in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He made his feature film debut with '' ...

as Sastry * Narsing Yadav as Rowdy * Chitti Babu *

Gundu Hanumantha Rao Gundu Hanumantha Rao (10 October 1956–19 February 2018) was an Indian actor and comedian who worked in Telugu films, theatre, and television. He first appeared in Jandhyala's film '' Aha Naa Pellanta'' in 1987 and gained popularity in comedia ...

* Indu Anand as Mahalakshmi's mother * Rajashree Reddy as Doctor * Likitha Kamini * Urvasi Patil in an item number

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

. Music released on SUPREME Audio Company.

Awards

;

- 2000(in

) * Second Best Feature Film - Silver – C. Ashwinidutt * Best Story Writer –

* Best Dialogue Writer –

Trivikram Srinivas Trivikram Srinivas (born Akella Naga Srinivasa Sarma; 7 November 1971), often credited as Trivikram, is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu cinema. In 2021, he became one of the highest-paid directors in Cinema of South ...

* Best Fight Master –

Kanal Kannan Kanal Kannan (born as V. Kannan) is an Indian actor, action choreographer and screenwriter who works in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi films. He has worked with actors Mammootty, Prithviraj , Unni Mukundan Unnikrishnan Mukund ...

;Other awards *Andhra Pradesh Film Journalists Association Award - 2000 –

Nagarjuna Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2000 films 2000s Telugu-language films Films about terrorism in India Politics of Jammu and Kashmir Journalism adapted into films Films based on Indian novels Films scored by Mani Sharma Telugu films remade in other languages Indian romantic action films 2000s romantic action films