Rangasthalam
Rangasthalam (transl. ’Theatre’ or ‘Stage’) is a 2018 Indian Telugu-language period action drama film[3] written and directed by Sukumar. Produced by Y. Naveen, Y. Ravi Shankar and C. V. Mohan for the company Mythri Movie Makers, the film stars Ram Charan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu with Aadhi Pinisetty, Jagapathi Babu, Prakash Raj, Naresh, and Anasuya Bharadwaj in key supporting roles. Rangasthalam is set in the eponymous fictional village in the 1980s. It narrates the story of two brothers, Chittibabu (Charan) and Kumar Babu (Pinisetty) who oppose the village’s local government and the corrupt co-operative society led by its president Phanindra Bhupathi (Babu).
Sukumar started working on the film’s script after completing Nannaku Prematho (2016), and collaborated with R. Rathnavelu, who served as the director of photography. Devi Sri Prasad composed the film’s soundtrack and score; Naveen Nooli edited the film. One of the first few Indian films to be entirely shot using Red Helium 8K cameras, Rangasthalam‘s principal photography began in April 2017 with the working title RC11 and lasted until March 2018. Majorly filmed in a village set worth ₹5 crore erected in Hyderabad, ten percent of the film’s footage was shot in and around Rajahmundry.
The film was made on a budget of ₹60 crore, and was released globally on 30 March 2018. Rangasthalam received positive reviews from the critics who were particularly appreciative of Sukumar’s writing and the performances of the ensemble cast, especially of Ram Charan and Jagapathi Babu. The film was commercially successful, grossing a total of ₹216 crore, and is among the highest-grossing Telugu films. It also won the National Film Award for Best Audiography. A Kannada-dubbed version of the film titled Rangasthala was released on 12 July 2019. The film is considered one of the “25 Greatest Telugu Films Of The Decade” by Film Companion.[4]
