Episode 190 - Mani Ratnam’s Geethanjali (1989): Review + Interesting Facts

Credits

Banner: Bhagyalakshmi Enterprises

Cast:

Nagarjuna Akkineni ... Prakash

Girija ... Geethanjali

Vijay Kumar ... Geethanjali's father

Vijayachander ... Prakash's father

Sumitra ... Prakash's mother

Radha Bai ... Geethanjali's grandmother

Dubbing Janaki ... Lakshmi

Muccherla Aruna ... Doctor

Shavukaru Janaki ... Vice Chancellor (Guest Appearance)

Other Cast: Sutti Velu, Chandramohan, 'Disco' Shanti, Silk Smitha (Guest), Padma, Priya, Neena, etc.

Dialogues: Rajasri

Music: Ilayaraja

Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki, K.S. Chitra

Lyrics: Veturi Sundararamamurthy

Choreography: Sundaram

Art: Thota Tharani

Editing: B. Lenin, V.T. Vijayan

Camera: P.C. Sriram

Producers: C. Praveen Kumar Reddy, P.R. Prasad

Story, Screenplay, and Direction: Maniratnam

Interesting Facts

It took me 9 films to realise my sensibilities. I was instructed by people around me for 8 films to choose a script. Then I realised that it’s not my sensibility. 

That’s when I saw Mani Rathnam’s Mouna Ragam. Films used to be screened just for morning shows during that time. Mouna Raagam ran for an year with morning shows in a theater. I liked Mani Rathnam and went to his home. I use to wait outside his house and say good morning once in every 3 days when he comes out for morning walk at 6:30 am. I did it for one month. Then I asked him to direct me for a Telugu film. He said that he doesn’t know Telugu. I convinced him that his visuals have language and it’s universal. That’s how Geetanjali was made. 

Girija salary was 75,000 rupees and then she had to go back and forth for visa issues as she came from the UK. 

Nagarjuna was paid 6 lakhs 30,000 rupees. 

First copy was readied with 95 lakhs and sold for pre release business of 1.4 crores, giving him a 9 lakhs profit pre release business 

Finally movie released on May 19th, 1989 and first it got flop talk but then became a blockbuster. Interesting fact in Guntur, the movie got a different version. RGV said this in an interview 

A preview screening of Geethanjali was held at Annapurna Studios a week before its release. Many people who watched the film's preview didn't like it. 

A Guntur distributor was very angry after watching the film and didn't like it at all. He told producer CL Narasa Reddy to remove the accident scene, the scene where the hero realizes that he has cancer and the scene where he goes to Ooty. He said that he will pay money only if these scenes are removed. Mani Ratnam was shocked because the entire gist of the film lies in those scenes.

"Mani Ratnam didn't want to remove those scenes. But the producer can't release the film in the Guntur region if the scenes are not removed. Then, Narasa Reddy removed those four scenes and sent the prints to Guntur without Mani Ratnam's knowledge," he further added. Varma went on to say, "The film was eventually released and got a super hit talk. It got a good talk and became a super hit in Guntur as well. 

Later, Mani Ratnam learnt the fact. He then requested the producer to add the removed scenes in the Guntur region as it got good word of mouth. Then the producer told him what is the need to tamper the film which is already having a good run in theatres."

After 2nd week, Mani Rattan said lets dub the movie Idhayathai Thirudathe in Tamil. In Chennai, Coimbatore, Maduri, Trichy in big centers it ran for 100 days, before that it w