Is Govinda Govinda (1994) Worthy of being a Cult Film? - Review + Interesting Facts

Credits 

Banner: Vyjayanthi Movies 

Cast: Nagarjuna, Sridevi, Pradesh Racal, Kota Srinivas Rao, Gummed, JV Somayajulu, Yamuna, Arun Govil, Sudhakar, G Gopal Reddy, Peketi Sivaram, Kallu Chidambaram, Uttej, Kadambari Kiran, Suryakantam, Annapurnamma, Siilk Smitha (SA)  

Music: Raj-Koti 

Lyrics: Veturi & Sirivennela
Dialogues: Jandhyala
Cinematography: S Gopal Reddy
Editing: Shankar 

Stunts:Babu
Art: B. Chalam
Story - Ganapathi Rao Kommanapalli, Ram Gopal varma 

Screenplay - Direction: Ram Gopal Varma
Producer: C. Aswini Dutt
Release date: January 21st, 1994 

Interesting Facts

So basically around that time Aswini Dutt wanted to make a movie with Nagarjuna and what happened was Ram Gopal Varma came with two subjects. One is Rangeela and other one is Govinda Govinda. 

He told that he prefers making Rangeela with Nagarjuna (Amir Khan role) and Rajnikanth (Jackie Shroff role). I told him that I wanted to do an action film. 

Since, I am an ardent follower of Sri Venkateswara Swamy, I preferred mixing action thriller with divinity and made 'Govinda Govinda'. The negative points in that films got highlighted and it became a flop. 

For the music Varma wanted to work with Raj koti as he loved them their music and this combination got set and told Aswini Dutt he wants them and said I need to interview them. 

Raj and Koti came to Annapurna Studios and Varma was a huge fan of Entha Gatu Premayo song from Muta Mestri. Varma told them he wanted something like Hollywood composers. Raj and Koti did a lot of research and brought collections and scores and said we are doing the movie. 

They readied the tunes 1 week before and put them in a butta. Pooja happened in Kanipakam and then they came to thirupathi and did the composing at a wedding hall owned by Doraswamy Raju Annamayya producer. 5-6 people batch. 

Started composing at 3:30, first song composed was Oh Naveena, Okayed it, RVg Butta nundi next song was Indira Mundira, next was Amma Brahma Devudo, okayed it, next Andama Anduma and he loved Sridevi so he thought they wrote it keeping her in mind but vaala uddesam adi kaadhu. 

Then Aswini Dutt when Varma listening to another song and pulled him aside and said you’re okaying everything do you know you’re making a movie with Nagarjuna and Sridevi they’ll give you however many tunes you want, Varma replied saying that it looks like they’ve composed these tunes they sound very fresh and they sound good and he got convicted. 

Actually Priya Ragalle song was composed for Govinda Govinda movie and Aswini Dutt loved it but Varma said it sounds too Indianized he begged Varma and Varma said sir ee style naaku nachadu. 

Finally they heard Premante and it got okayed. In 30-40 minutes all the tunes were okayed and they went back Chennai that night only from Tirupathi, They gave the tunes to Sirivennela garu 7-10 days and readied the lyrics. 

Did the recording from 9 AM - 9 PM, Mani Sharma was the keyboard player, Harris Jayaraj 

Hyderabad, Talakona, Ooty, and Bangkok movie was shot. Also filmed in sets at Padmalaya Studios and most of the songs are filmed in India only. 

According to RGV, the censor board cut a lot of scenes due to the controversial nature of the story in relation to Tirumala temple. 

Additionally, apparently there are scenes of the theives climbing the statue to get the Kireetam which were also cut from the final print.