Johnny (Pawan Kalyan) is an orphan who teaches martial arts for a living. He falls in love with another orphan called Geetha (Renu Desai), who is a teacher. They get married. Later on, it is revealed that Geetha suffers from blood cancer and needs to get operated urgently. Rest of the story is about how Johnny managed to get the money to save her.
Trade
Johnny is the movie which followed Pawan Kalyan's blockbuster movie, Kushi. Also it was his first directorial. The movie fell short of expectations in all the ways and ended a huge disaster.
Highlights
This is the first time Pawan Kalyan and Renu Desai paired up for a movie after their marriage, the earlier being Badri.
This is the first directorial of Pawan Kalyan. He did not direct any movie after this debacle.
Sidelights
Pawan Kalyan used 'Spot dubbing technique' for the first time in this movie. But there were complaints that the dialogues weren't audible enough.
After the release of Kushi, Pawan Kalyan took a long gap of two years in his career. He went to Japan to learn 'Aikido', a martial art technique to use in his first directorial venture Johnny.
Pawan Kalyan hired International Ridley team for a whopping sum to compose the ring fight in the movie.
Pawan Kalyan had to return his remuneration back to the producer given his film failed at the box office.
The audio rights of the movie were bagged for a record price by Aditya Music then.
The creative team of Johnny has roped in Archies for manufacturing and distribution of Johnny merchandize. The Johnny merchandise included wall posters, T shirts, cargos, tattoos, pens, notepads etc.
Pawan Kalyan was the brand ambassador of Pepsi then and the latter spent a lot in promoting this movie.