Premam (2016 film)

The film opens in the year 2000, where Vikram (Naga Chaitanya), is shown to be a shy and modest young man who loves Suma (Anupama Parameswaran) who, unfortunately for Vicky, is loved by all the boys in the area. After a desperate attempt to write a love letter, Vikram is unable to give it to Suma due to her strict militarian father (Prudhviraj). He later gives the letter to his neighbour, a young girl, who is seen to be continuously hanging around Suma, to give it to her. Suma soon starts getting closer to Vicky, even coming to visit him at his home. However, he is shocked when he learns that she is already in love with another man, and only wanted help from Vicky to be able to communicate with her lover. Despite his friends and family trying to tell him that she is merely using him to achieve what she wanted, Vicky open-heartedly helps Suma whenever she needs help, showing his love for her.

In the second phase of his life, circa 2005, Vicky is a thug student in college, who goes around making trouble with his friends, Vasu (Praveen) and Siva (Chaitanya Krishna). After getting suspended for 2 months after beating their rival group led by Arjun (Noel Sean), they re-enter the college only to start ragging on the very first day. They apprehend a Marathi-Tamil lecturer, Sithara (Shruti Hassan), assuming her to be a student. She lets them go, but later punishes them when she finds out they were consuming alcohol in the class. Vikram begins to fall in love with Sithara. Meanwhile, the P.E. coach (Brahmaji) fails attempting to help lecturer Kantha Rao (Narra Srinu) to fulfil his love for Sithara. Vikram tricks both of them and slowly begins getting closer to Sithara. Later, he even begins calling her on phone. However, he feels scared when Sanjay (Arvind Krishna), Sithara's cousin, shows up, and expresses closeness to her. Realising he is feeling jealous, Sithara tries to get closer to him, eventually reciprocating his feelings. After celebrating Gudi Padva together, They both realise that they are in love with each other. After joining their annual day functions for a dance performance, Vicky and his friends are unable to get a good choreographer. Sithara, revealing she is a state level dancer, volunteers to help them, and they win the dance contest. Sithara is soon forced to go on a month leave to her hometown. A month later, however, it is revealed that her bus met with an accident, rendering her amnesiac, forcing her to leave the college. Vikram leaves to her hometown with his friends, but is heart-broken when she fails to recognise him, even after he shows her a bracelet she made specially for him.

11 years later, 2016, Vicky is one of the top chefs of Hyderabad, unfortunately still single with haunting memories of Sithara. He spends time with the manager of his restaurant, E.K. (Srinivasa Reddy). One night, he happens to meet Sindhu (Madonna Sebastian), who later reveals him that she is the young girl to whom he had asked to deliver Suma's letter, revealing she did not deliver but instead read it. Initially taking it as rude, Vikram forgives her and begins to spend time with her, eventually falling in love with her. He befriends Arjun at Arjun's bachelor party, and on the suggestion of his friends, decides to propose to her without further delay. However, she reveals him that she has a previous engagement, forcing Vicky to react violently. After ignoring her for days, he finally gives her a chance to speak, and she reveals the marriage was cancelled after her fiancé, Ravi substance abused her. After attempting to make peace with him over the phone, Ravi swears at Vicky, forcing him and his friends to bash Ravi. Vicky and Sindhu get married. Sithara and her present-husband Sanjay come to meet them after being invited by Vasu on Sindhu's request. After seeing a special Shrikhand dessert present there, she recalls the same dessert Vicky made her for Gudipadava, resuscitating her memory. However, she realizes he is better off without her, and decides not to reveal anything to him.

In a post-credits scene, it is shown that the reason for Vicky's restaurant's name being S-Star is that an astrologer had predicted his future wife would have a name starting from S. Vicky recalls his life in the last 16 years, recalling that each of the girls he loved had a name starting from S.

After the success of the Malayalam film Premam, PDV Prasad of Sithara Entertainments,[5] bagged the remake rights for the titled under the same name. In August 2015, Naga Chaitanya, was announced to play the lead role in the film, according to a report from The Indian Express.[6] The principal photography for the film commenced on September 2015. Apart from Chaitanya, Shruti Haasan was announced to portray the role of a lecturer, played by Sai Pallavi in the film.[7]

On November 2015, Anupama Parameswaran roped in to reprise her original character from the film,[8] alongside Madonna Sebastian, both making their Telugu debut in the film.[9] The college portion, which became a crucial part of the original, was shot in Andhra University in Vizag. Two songs were shot at Norway.[10] Both Akkineni Nagarjuna and Daggubati Venkatesh made cameo appearance in the film.[11][12]

Premam
Soundtrack album by Gopi Sundar and Rajesh Murugesan
Released	7 September 2016
Recorded	2016
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	24:00
Language	Telugu
Label	Aditya Music
Producer	Gopi Sundar Rajesh Murugesan
External audio Official Audio Jukebox on YouTube

Premam's original soundtrack album features seven songs, with four of them being reused from the original counterpart film, which were composed by Rajesh Murugesan, and three songs being composed by Gopi Sundar. The lyrics for the songs were written by Sri Mani, Ramajogayya Sastry, Vanamali, Purna Chary and Krishna Madineni, whilst Vijay Yesudas, Haricharan, Sachin Warrier, Ranjith, Naresh Iyer and Karthik contributed their vocals to the songs. The track "Evare" which was reused from the Malayalam song "Malare" was released as the first single from the album on 17 August 2016,[13] and received praise from music listeners, without changing the original singer for the song.[14] An article from Firstpost slated that the song is a throwback to the Malayalam original.[15] The second song "Bang Bang" was released on 25 August 2016.[16] Aditya Music unveiled the complete soundtrack album on 7 September 2016, at an audio-release promotional event held at Hyderabad.[17]

The album received positive response from music critics, as well as listeners and the songs topped the radio charts upon release.[18] Writing for The Times of India, Neetishta Nyayapati gave three-and-a-half out of five stars, and stated "The album is mature and will come as a breath of fresh air."[19] Behindwoods gave 3.25 out of 5 and stated "Premam is an interesting album which stays true to the original and at the same time explores the better nuances of music."[20] Indiaglitz too gave the same rating and stated "Premam' is a melodious and lyrically rich album with seasoned singing."[21] Bollywood Life, gave three-and-a-half out of five stars to the album, and stated the album retains the charm of the original.[22] Moviecrow rated three out of five stars, and praised the director stating "Chandoo Mondeti plays safe by retaining lovable Rajesh Murugesan tracks as in the original, though Telugu version misses the playful Aluva Puzha and angsty Kalippu", whereas criticising Gopi Sundar's work as his new tracks did not add value to the album.[23]

The first look of the film was released on 24 February 2016.[24] On 3 June 2016, the makers of Premam announced the release of the film scheduling on the Independence Day weekend, which falls on 12 August 2016.[25][26] The team also planned to launch the teaser on 11 June 2016, but no official confirmation was announced.[27] Reports stated that the film, will be postponed to 25 August, to avoid clash with Janatha Garage (2016),[10] On July, the makers announced that the film will be postponed to September, due to delay in production.[28][29] It was later announced that the film's release date was finalised as 7 October 2016.[30][31] Originally, Premam was set to clash with Ram Charan-starrer Dhruva (2016), on the same date.[32] However, the delay in the release of the latter,[33] made way for the team to have a solo-release.[34] The film was awarded with 'U/A' Certificate by Central Board of Film Certification.[35]

• Premam at IMDb