Revisiting Choodalani Vundi (1998): Review + Interesting Facts

Credits

Banner: Vyjayanthi Movies 

Cast: Megastar Chiranjeevi, Soundarya, Anjala Zhaveri, Prakash Raj, MAster Teja Sajja, Authi Prasad, Bramanandham, MS Narayana, Brahmaji, Venu Madhav, Bandla Ganesh, Dhulipala Sitarama Sastry 

Music: Mani Sharma 

Cinematography: Chota K Naidu 

Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao 

Art Direction: Thota Tharani 

Fights: Vijayan 

Lyrics: Veturi & Chandrabose 

Choreography: Saroj Khan, Raghava Lawrence, Raju Sundaram 

Costume Design: Manish Malhotra 

Producer: C. Aswini Dutt 

Release date: August 27th, 1998 

• First title of the movie was Kaalika, alternative title Kolkata, Kolkata Kalika since its Kolkata backdrop, hence he started the movie with Kali Matha title card and credits 
• Chiranjeevi was the one who put the title Choodalani Undi 

• Coming to Railway Station scene, Gunashekar wrote about a 20 page booklet like a novel to write the scene. More action, literally no dialogues. He said it was going to be like this and he learned to write scenes from DV Natasha Raju. He told Chiru garu and he laughed and said this is a scene for Pawan Kalyan like in Tholi Prema, why are you doing it with me, because its on you its like this, for him it would be different, but lastly he enjoyed it a lot 
• Then he told Chota K Naidu and he Las got very excited bhale undi. Coming to filming of it, Aswnini Dutt suggested Ramoji Film City train station. But Gunahsekar wanted live location Nampally Railway Station with live crowd and ambiance, Aswini Dutt got shocked, taking CHiru to Nampally scene. 
• Ramoji Film. City is fine, but it has to be realistic. Dutt felt it would be very difficult. They got permission but hoe would be control the crowd and then how are we going to film it become a huge challenge. 2-3 days they had a lot of discussions about it 
• Chota K Naidu and his team perfectly planned all the lighting and camera movements etc, got all the shots ready. 
• Filmed 3 days at NAmpally and then 1 day at Kachiguda was the plan. 
• Aswini Dutt acted as a latti master as well to control the crowd 
• Finally they completed Namapally scenes in 2 days with planning and then 1 day at Kachiguda 
• Choodalanu Undi is the first Telugu movie to be filmed in Kolkata, Kolkata apartment was done in Annapurna 7 acres 
• Yamaha Nagari - Raju Sundaram, Rama Chilakamma and Oh Maria done by legendary Saroj Khan 
• Regarding the inclusion of Hariharan, Udit Narayan, Shankar MAhadevan, it was collective decision between Gunashekar and Mani Sharma. He specifically told Mani Sharma that the sounds should be new, from Iliayaraja to AR Rahman and brought a new trend of introducing new singers, composing and engineering, told him the sound should be ultimate sound should be new for audience 
• Until then only dubbing songs heard Udit Narayan, Hariharan, and Shankar Mahadevan, nobody sang straight songs in Telugu 
• Automatically first choice is Balu garu for any song, but to take it to the next level we have to use new singers for the other songs, obviously for Rama Chilakamma Chiru and Aswnini Dutt opposed Udit Narayan for it, even balu wanted to sing it, but they objected, he got angry, and then they sang it with Udit Narayan sang it and the rest is history 
• Dialogues were written by Divakar Babu, he gave him a script book, he loved writing for Chiru and Soundarya scenes, Chiru did improvisation for all their poetic conversations
• Choodalani Undi collected 12.2 crores share and just missed industry hit status, ran for 100 days in 63 centers, all time record and first Telugu movie to run in more than 60 centers for