''Nijam'' () is a 2003 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

action 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, directed and produced by

Teja Teja may refer to: Places *Isla Teja, an island in Chile *La Teja, a neighbourhood of Montevideo, Uruguay * Teja, Perak, Malaysia * Teja Kalan, a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India * Teja Khurd, a village in Batala in G ...

on Chitram Movies banner. The film stars

Mahesh Babu Ghattamaneni Mahesh Babu (born 9 August 1975) is an Indian actor, producer, media personality, and philanthropist who works mainly in Telugu cinema. He has appeared in more than 25 films, and won several accolades including, eight Nandi Award ...

Rakshita Shweta, known by her stage name Rakshita, is an Indian television personality, film producer and former actress known for her work in Kannada cinema. Early life Rakshita was brought up in Bangalore. Her father B. C. Gowrishankar was a cinemat ...

, Gopichand and Raasi, with music was composed by

R. P. Patnaik Ravindra Prasad Patnaik is an Indian music composer, singer, actor, screenwriter and film director who works in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil. He won three Filmfare Awards and three Nandi Awards. He has toured the world to perform his live shows. ...

. Babu and

Talluri Rameshwari Talluri Rameswari (also known as Rameswari) is an Indian actress who worked in Hindi, Odia and Telugu language films. Early life She was born and raised in Andhra Pradesh and spent her childhood in Kakinada. Career Rameswari graduated from F ...

won the

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 ...

in Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories respectively. It was remade in

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

as ''Arjun'' (2005) starring

Anubhav Mohanty Anubhav Mohanty (born 24 December 1981) is an Indian actor, film producer, television personality and politician who is known for his work in Odia-language films. Career Mohanty started his career by first appearing in Odia music videos before ...

and in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

as ''Top Leader'' (2005) starring

Shakib Khan Masud Rana ( bn, মাসুদ রানা), better known by the name Shakib Khan ( bn, শাকিব খান) born 28 March 1979) is a Bangladeshi actor, producer, occasional singer, film organiser, and media personality who works in B ...

Plot

Sidda Reddy is a powerful gangster whose right hand is Devadaya "Devudu" Sharma, who has a lover named Malli. Reddy, who also likes Malli, takes her to his bed, which is not liked by Devudu. Eventually, Devudu kills Reddy and becomes the leader of the gang. Venkateswarlu is a fire officer, who slaps Devudu when he set a marketplace on fire and as continued throwing

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...

at the marketplace. Devudu holds a grudge against Venkateswarlu, where he sends him to prison on a framed charge of the murder of Malli's brother Baddu. Venkateswarlu's son G. Seetharam tries to rescue his father, but everybody starts asking him for a bribe to do the work. At the end of the day, the CI and Devudu kill Venkateswarlu. Enraged, Seetaram's mother Shanthi and Seetharam executes the people involved in Venkateswarlu's death in a planned and scientific manner and also finishes Devudu, thus exacting their vengeance.

Cast

as G. Sitaram *

as Janaki * Gopichand as Devadaya "Devudu" Sharma * Raasi as Malli *

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 ACP Raja Narendra *

Jaya Prakash Reddy Jaya Prakash Reddy (8 May 1946 – 8 September 2020) was an Indian actor who predominantly appeared in Telugu films. Born in Sirvel of Andhra Pradesh, he came into the limelight with the film ''Samarasimha Reddy'' (1999) where he played the ro ...

as Sidda Reddy * Ranganath as G. Venkateswarlu, Sitaram's father * Rameshwari as Shanti, Sitaram's mother *

Brahmaji Brahmaji (born 25 April 1965) is an Indian actor best known for his work in Telugu cinema. He is a regular actor in director Krishna Vamsi's films. Brahmaji appeared in an important role in Krishna Vamsi's debut film as a director, '' Gulabi''. ...

as CI D. Mohan *

Vijayachander Vijayachander, (born Vijayachander Telidevara), is an Indian actor, director and producer, known for his works in Telugu cinema, theatre, and television. Regarded as one of the finest character actor's of Telugu cinema, Vijayachander has appear ...

as DGP * Jeeva as DCP Murali Krishna *

Suman Setty Suman Shetty is an Indian actor known for his comic roles. He appears in Telugu and Tamil Films. He won the Nandi Award for Best Male Comedian for his comic role in Jayam film.(in Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidi ...

as Baddu *

Kanta Rao Tadepalli Lakshmi Kantha Rao (16 November 1923 – 22 March 2009) was an Indian actor and producer known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. Regarded as one of the finest method actors, Rao starred in more than four hundred feature ...

as Narayana Rao * Rallapalli as a butcher *

Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam 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 a traffic constable *

Kondavalasa Kondavalasa Lakshmana Rao (10 August 1946 – 2 November 2015), popularly known as Kondavalasa, was an Indian actor and comedian who worked in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. Background Kondavalasa Lakshmana Rao was born on 10 August 1946 in ...

as Sitaram's neighbor *

Duvvasi Mohan Duvvasi Mohan is an Indian actor who is know for acting in comic roles, primarily in Telugu films.. He is from Jagityal. He entered Tollywood as a producer and financier, but later turned to acting with comedy roles in over 350 films. Partial f ...

as Patil *

Tirupathi Prakash Timmapuram Karanam Ravi Prakash Rao, popularly known as Tirupathi Prakash, is a well known comedy artist in Telugu cinema. He was born in Hindupur in the Anantapuram district on 22 August 1972 to TK Rama Murthy Rao and T K Satyavathi. Tirupat ...

Shakeela C. Shakeela, known mononymously as Shakeela, is an Indian actress and politician who has predominantly acted in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu language films. She is a member of Indian National Congress. Shakeela debuted in the film ''Playgirls'' ...

*Alapati Lakshmi *Master Ghatamaneni Jaya Krishna as a young Sitaram

Cameo appearance

Mani Chandana Mani Chandana is an Indian actress who has appeared in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil language films in the early 2000s. She returned to the film industry in the late 2010s portraying supporting roles. Career Mani Chandana appeared in Kannada, Telugu ...

as a dancer (cameo appearance in the song "Rathalu Rathalu")

Soundtrack

Music was composed by

. Lyrics were penned by Kula Shekar. Music was released on Aditya Music.

Release

Reception

Jeevi of ''Idlebrain'' gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Overall, it's an average film that has chances to become hit because of the Teja's mass-attracting episodes and Mahesh Babu's brilliant portrayal of the character". Vijayalakshmi of ''

Rediff Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 e ...

'' wrote "Only a couple of things salvage director Teja's Nijam -- the first is an excellent performance by lead star and teen sensation Mahesh. The second is cinematographer Samir Reddy's camera work.

Box office

In an interview,

said "We made Nijam in a budget of 6.5 crore; We sold audio rights for 2 crore and movie initially were sold for a total of 26 crore. In total, we made a profit of 5-6 crore and Nijam was not a flop". In an interview with ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'', Teja told "I worked with Mahesh after he had a flop called ''

Bobby Bobby or Bobbie may refer to: People * Bobby (given name), a list of names * Bobby (actress), from Bangladesh * Bobby (rapper) (born 1995), from South Korea * Bobby (screenwriter) (born 1983), Indian screenwriter * Bobby, old slang for a constabl ...

'', but Nijam released after ''

Okkadu ''Okkadu'' ( ''The One'') is a 2003 Indian Telugu-language romantic action film written and directed by Gunasekhar. It stars Mahesh Babu, Bhumika Chawla and Prakash Raj. The film was produced by M.S. Raju while music was composed by Mani Sharma ...

'' and people drew comparisons. I don’t argue when people say Nijam was a flop. The film was made with a budget of 6.5 crore and sold for 21 crore. I repaid money to whoever lost money and still made a huge profit".

Dubbed versions and remakes

The film was also dubbed into

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 ...

as ''Nijam'', and then again in 2012 as ''Seerum Singam''. The film was dubbed as ''Meri Adalat'' in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

, in

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

as ''Aamar Protishodh'' and in

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

as ''Hamaar Faisla''. It was remade as ''Arjun'' (2005) in

starring Anubhab Mohanty and Gargi Mohanty and Bangladesh as ''Top Leader'' (2005) starring

Awards

Won

;

* Best Actor -

* Best Supporting Actress -

;

CineMAA Awards The CineMAA Awards are presented annually by the Maa TV Group to honour artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Telugu Cinema. The awards were introduced in 2004. The CineMAA Awards are voted for by both the public and a commit ...

Best Villain Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporation ...

- Gopichand ;

Filmfare Awards South Filmfare Awards South is the South Indian segment of the annual Filmfare Awards, presented by the Filmfare magazine of The Times Group to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Indian film industry encompassing ...

* Best Actor - Telugu -

Nominated

* Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress - Telugu - Taluri Rameswari ;

* CineMAA Award for Best Actor - Male - Mahesh Babu * CineMAA Award for Best Film - Teja

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0368896 2003 films Films about corruption in India 2000s Telugu-language films Telugu films remade in other languages Films directed by Teja (film director) Indian vigilante films Indian action films Indian films about revenge Films scored by R. P. Patnaik 2003 action films 2000s vigilante films