Nijam

Nijam (transl. Truth) is a 2003 Indian Telugu-language action film written, directed and produced by Teja on Chitram Movies banner. The film stars Mahesh Babu, Rakshita, Gopichand and Raasi, with music was composed by R. P. Patnaik.

Nijam
Movie Poster
Directed by	Teja
Written by	Teja
Produced by	Teja
Starring	Mahesh Babu Rakshita Gopichand Raasi
Cinematography	Sameer Reddy
Edited by	Shankar
Music by	R. P. Patnaik
Production company	Chitram Movies
Release date	23 May 2003 (2003-05-23)
Running time	187 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Babu and Talluri Rameshwari won the Nandi Awards in Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories respectively. It was remade in Odia as Arjun (2005) starring Anubhav Mohanty and in Bangladesh as Top Leader (2005) starring Shakib Khan.

Plot

Sidda Reddy is a powerful gangster. His right-hand man Devadaya "Devudu" Sharma has a lover named Malli. Reddy, who also likes Malli, takes her to his bed, which is not liked by Devudu. Eventually, Devudu kills Reddy and becomes the leader of the gang. Venkateswarlu is a fire officer, who slaps Devudu when the latter set a marketplace on fire and continued throwing kerosene at the marketplace. Devudu holds a grudge against Venkateswarlu, where he sends him to prison on a framed charge of the murder of Malli's brother Baddu. Venkateswarlu's son G. Seetharam tries to rescue his father, but everybody starts asking him for a bribe to do the work. At the end of the day, CI Mohan and Devudu kill Venkateswarlu. Enraged, Seetaram's mother Shanthi and Seetharam execute the people involved in Venkateswarlu's death in a planned and scientific manner and also finish Devudu, thus exacting their vengeance.

Cast

• Mahesh Babu as G. Sitaram
• Rakshita as Janaki
• Gopichand as Devadaya "Devudu" Sarma
• Raasi as Malli
• Prakash Raj as ACP Raja Narendra
• Jaya Prakash Reddy as Sidda Reddy
• Ranganath as G. Venkateswarlu, Sitaram's father
• Rameswari as Santhi, Sitaram's mother
• Brahmaji as CI D. Mohan
• Vijayachander as DGP
• Jeeva as DCP Murali Krishna
• Suman Setty as Baddu
• Kanta Rao as Narayana Rao
• Rallapalli as a butcher
• Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam as a traffic constable
• Kondavalasa as Sitaram's neighbor
• Duvvasi Mohan as Patil
• Tirupathi Prakash
• Shakeela
• Alapati Lakshmi
• Master Ghatamaneni Jaya Krishna as a young Sitaram
• Mani Chandana as a dancer (cameo appearance in the song "Rathalu Rathalu")

Soundtrack

Nijam
Soundtrack album by R. P. Patnaik
Released	16 March 2003 (2003-03-16)
Recorded	2003
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	33:54
Label	Aditya Music
Producer	R. P. Patnaik
R. P. Patnaik chronology
Dil (2003) Nijam (2003) Sambaram (2003)

Music was composed by R. P. Patnaik. Lyrics were penned by Kulasekhar. Music was released on Aditya Music.

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Chandamama Raave"	R. P. Patnaik, Usha	3:39
2.	"Rathalu Rathalu"	R. P. Patnaik, Usha	4:15
3.	"Neelo Unnadi"	R. P. Patnaik, Usha	4:01
4.	"Chi Chi Ante"	R. P. Patnaik, Usha	4:13
5.	"Dhandakam"	Gopichand, Gangadhara Sastry	1:53
6.	"Ilage Ilage"	R. P. Patnaik, Usha	3:54
7.	"Kakulu Durani"	R. P. Patnaik, Ravi Varma	1:48
8.	"Abhimanyudu"	Group Song	1:52
9.	"Chara Chara"	Usha, Murthy	4:04
10.	"Rangu Rangula"	R. P. Patnaik	4:08
Total length:			33:54

Release

Reception

Jeevi of Idlebrain gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Overall, it's an average film that has chances to become hit because of the Teja's mass-attracting episodes and Mahesh Babu's brilliant portrayal of the character".^[1] Vijayalakshmi of Rediff wrote "Only a couple of things salvage director Teja's Nijam -- the first is an excellent performance by lead star and teen sensation Mahesh. The second is cinematographer Samir Reddy's camera work.^[2] BVS Prakash of Screen wrote "Except for some good performance by Mahesh, director Teja’s much-hyped film Nijam (truth) is nothing but a rehash of Kamal Haasan’s Indian and it also lacks realistic characters with villain (Gopi) who calls himself God but behaves like a psychic. Teja, who rose to fame with love stories Nuvvu Nenu and Jayam, fails to dish out an interesting ‘star-centric’ film".^[3]

Box office

In an interview, Teja said "We made Nijam in a budget of ₹6.5 crore; We sold audio rights for ₹2 crore and movie initially were sold for a total of ₹26 crore. In total, we made a profit of ₹5-6 crore and Nijam was not a flop".^[4][5] In an interview with The Hindu, Teja told "I worked with Mahesh after he had a flop called Bobby, but Nijam released after Okkadu and people drew comparisons. I don’t argue when people say Nijam was a flop. The film was made with a budget of ₹6.5 crore and sold for ₹21 crore. I repaid money to whoever lost money and still made a huge profit".^[6]

Dubbed versions and remakes

The film was also dubbed into Tamil as Nijam, and then again in 2012 as Seerum Singam.^[7] The film was dubbed as Meri Adalat in Hindi, in Bengali as Aamar Protishodh and in Bhojpuri as Hamaar Faisla. It was remade as Arjun (2005) in Odia starring Anubhab Mohanty and Gargi Mohanty (with Rameshwari reprised her role from Nijam) and Bangladesh as Top Leader (2005) starring Shakib Khan.

Awards

Won

Nandi Awards^[8]

• Best Actor - Mahesh Babu
• Best Supporting Actress - Talluri Rameswari

CineMAA Awards^[9]

• Best Villain - Gopichand

Nominated

Filmfare Awards South

• Best Actor - Telugu - Mahesh Babu
• Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress - Telugu - Taluri Rameswari^[10]

CineMAA Awards

• CineMAA Award for Best Actor - Male - Mahesh Babu
• CineMAA Award for Best Film - Teja