Happy Days (2007 film)

''Happy Days '' is a 2007 Indian Telugu-language musical coming of age film written, produced and directed by Sekhar Kammula. The film features Varun Sandesh, Rahul Haridas, Nikhil Siddharth, Vamsee Krishna, Tamannaah, Sonia Deepti, Gayatri Rao, and Monali Chowdhary in the lead roles. The plot explores the college life and experiences of eight friends.

The film was dubbed in Malayalam and remade in Kannada as '' Jolly Days'' and in Tamil as ''Inidhu Inidhu'' by actor Prakash Raj. The film won six Filmfare Awards South,"55th Annual Tiger Balm South Filmfare Awards 2008: Winners – Malluwood News & Gossips"
Bharatstudent.com (14 July 2008). Retrieved on 2016-05-11. and three Nandi Awards."Nandi awards 2007 announced – Telugu cinema news"
Idlebrain.com (12 January 2008). Retrieved on 2016-05-11.

Plot

Happy Days tells us a story that explores the lives of eight friends through the four years of their engineering course. Each one of them joins Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology with their own set of idiosyncrasies, eccentricities, beliefs and ideals. What starts off as a journey of individuals, slowly becomes a collective one over time. They bond over as they go through bullying seniors, stringent professors, intense examinations, over the top celebrations, love, betrayal, sacrifice and every other possible emotion that an individual can experience in a college. The movie portrays the mindset of a typical engineering student which helped youth to connect with the characters involved.

Cast

* Varun Sandesh as Chandrashekar "Chandu"
* Tamannaah as Madhu
* Nikhil Siddharth as Rajesh
* Sonia Deepti as Shravanthi "Shravs"
* Vamsee Chaganti as Shankar
* Gayatri Rao as Aparna "Appu"
* Rahul Haridas as Arjun "Tyson"
* Monali Chowdhary as Sangeetha
* Gururaj Manepalli as College Principal
* Kamalinee Mukherjee as Shreya Madam (Guest Appearance)
* Krishnudu as Bandodu
* Randhir Gattla as Naveen
* Aadarsh Balakrishna as Sanjay
* Vamshi as Paidithalli
* Adithya as Praveen
* Shruti as Prashanthi
* Sandhya Janak as Madhu's mother

Production

Casting

Sekhar Kammula held a talent search at Big FM and idlebrain.com and managed to select seven of the eight lead actors. He had to cast Tamannaah as a suitable actress was not found.Idle Brain Interview with Sekhar Kammula
Idlebrain.com (26 September 2007). Retrieved on 2016-05-11. The main lead of the film was selected using the internet without any direct audition. Varun Sandesh did not audition for his role. He sent his photograph by e-mail in response to idlebrain.com advertisement and subsequently sent a video clip of himself enacting certain scenes along with a song via Google Video. Damidi Kamalakar Reddy, founding Secretary and Treasurer of Chaitanya Engineering College, acted as a Professor/Lecturer in a brief cameo role.

Location

Most of the movie was shot at Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT) and Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology MGIT. In fact, the opening scene between Appu and Rajesh was shot in MGIT with select scenes shot outdoors. Sekhar is an alumnus of CBIT, and he found it to be a suitable location. He had to arrange a special screening of Anand to the chairman of CBIT and its board members to convince them for an on-site shoot. Apparently, after watching Anand, the board granted their permission to shoot the film.

Cost cutting measures

Sekhar Kammula cut costs of producing the film through various methods. By casting newcomers, he cut expenses to a reasonable level. As most of the shooting took place in the college, there was no need to construct sets. By partnering with ''Pantaloon Group'', he saved another Rs 1 million in the costumes budget.

Release

''Happy Days'' was released on 28 September 2007 in the United States and 2 October 2007 in India. In addition, it was dubbed into Malayalam.

Response

Though the film featured mostly newcomers, it became a commercial hit throughout India. It collected 100 crores (1000million) in 50 days. The film received extremely positive reviews for its fresh story, cast, screenplay, and songs.

Awards

; Filmfare Awards South – 2008
* Best film – Sekhar Kammula
* Best Director – Sekhar Kammula
* Best Supporting Actress – Sonia Deepti
* Best Music Director – Mickey J. Meyer
* Best Lyricist – Vanamali (''Areyrey Areyrey'')
* Best Male Playback Singer – Karthik (''Areyrey Areyrey'')

; Nandi Awards – 2008
* Second Best Feature Film - Silver – Sekhar Kammula
* Best Music Director – Mickey J Meyer
* Best Male Playback Singer – Karthik (''Oh My Friend'')

; CineMAA Awards – 2008
* Best Film – Sekhar Kammula
* Best Director – Sekhar Kammula
* Best Story – Sekhar Kammula
* Best Screenplay – Sekhar Kammula
* Best Music – Ilayaraja
* Best Lyricist – Vanamali (''Areyrey Areyrey'')
* Best Lyricist – Veturi
* Best Male Singer – Karthik (''Areyrey Areyrey'')

Soundtrack

The Music was composed by Mickey J Meyer and Released by Big Music. The Audio Launch took place at Annapurna Studios on 24 August 2007, 100 students selected from various colleges in Hyderabad attended it to make it more colorful. The guests for the evening included BN Reddy (CBIT), Kamalakar Reddy (CBIT), Dil Raju, Sekhar Kammula, Ravi Naidu (BIG Music), Mahesh Kumar (Reliance business head), Ilayaraja , Swapna, C Vijaya Kumar, Ashok and the star cast.BN Reddy launched the audio CD and gave the first unit to Kamalakar Reddy.

Mickey J Meyer Won The Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Telugu and Nandi Award for Best Music Director for this Soundtrack.

Dubbed Versions and Remakes

The film was dubbed into Malayalam as Happy Days and re-made in Kannada as '' Jolly Days'' and released in 2008. Both versions proved to be successful. The Tamil remake, ''Inidhu Inidhu'', was directed by noted cinematographer K. V. Guhan under actor Prakash Raj's Duet Movies banner. The first schedule was completed in Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore (also called VIT University) and featured newcomers as protagonists. Mickey J. Meyer was retained as the music director and the project was his first venture in Tamil.

In 2014, there were speculations that a Hindi remake of ''Happy Days'' would be directed by Sekhar himself, and would be co-produced by Salman Khan.Sekhar Kammula confirms his next film"
''Times of India'' (1 May 2014). Retrieved on 2016-05-11. However, there were no further updates.

References

Arey Arey Mp3 Song
By Mp3Reels

External links

*

{{Filmfare Best Telugu Film

2007 films
Telugu films remade in other languages
Films scored by Mickey J Meyer
2000s buddy comedy films
2000s coming-of-age comedy-drama films
Indian buddy comedy-drama films
Indian coming-of-age comedy-drama films
Films about teacher–student relationships
Films set in universities and colleges
Films directed by Sekhar Kammula
2000s Telugu-language films