‘He is an auto rickshaw driver. He witnessed the murder of a journalist and helps Police catch the criminals. The villain retaliates by killing him and hurting his wife. His son escapes and confesses a crime that wasn’t committed by him…’ This is briefly the plot of Ram Charan’s debut film Chirutha. It was released on 28th of September in 2007, 13 years ago. Not many know that there is an interesting story behind the story of Chirutha.
Dynamic director Puri Jagannath made many efforts to establish his brother’s career as a hero. He directed ‘143’ and produced films such as ‘Hello Premisthara’, ‘Bumper Offer’ and ‘Romeo’ with him. Puri even wrote a love story along with Meher Ramesh and started a film with Sai. This project stopped due to unknown reasons and Puri became a star director with ‘Pokiri’ and ‘Desamuduru’. Megastar Chiranjeevi thought that Puri Jagannadh was apt as a director for son Ram Charan’s launch and asked him to direct his debut. Instead of going for a new script, Puri used the storyline of his brother’s unrealized movie.
Even though ‘Chirutha’ garnered average talk from the audiences, it went on to become a blockbuster at the box office. Neha Sharma acted as the leading lady and Prakash Raj played an important role in it. Ali, Ashish Vidyarthi, Surya and Pragathi form the remaining cast. Mani Sharma’s songs became chartbusters and cinematography by Shyam K Naidu remains one of the highlights. This is the secret behind Puri’s ‘Chirutha’ which was only known to those in his close circles.
