Pandu (Mahesh Babu) is a contract killer with his own set of principles and values. He never harms women and children. Due to this, he gets in to a tangle with a big mafia don, Ali Bhai (Prakash Raj). And on the other side, there is Shruti (Ileana), an aerobics teacher. Pandu falls for her instantly and she too has a soft corner for him. Rest of the story is about the enmity between Pandu and Ali Bhai.
Trade
Pokiri was the biggest hit in Mahesh Babu’s career till then. The movie went to rewrite all the existing records in all the territories of Andhra Pradesh and was declared an Industry Hit.
Highlights
Pokiri was the first film Mahesh Babu and Puri Jagannath worked with. Later they went on to do one more movie, Business Man together which was a blockbuster too.
Ileana and Mahesh Babu had paired up for the first time with this movie.
The movie had won several awards at various awards functions. Here are some notable awards.
Nandi Awards 2006:
Nandi Award for Best Popular Feature Film: Pokiri
Nandi Award for Best Editor: Marthand K. Venkatesh
Nandi Award for Best Fight Master: Vijayan
Nandi Award for Best Male Dubbing Artist: P. Ravi Sankar
54th Filmfare Awards South 2006:
Filmfare Best Director Award (Telugu): Puri Jagannadh
Filmfare Best Actor Award (Telugu): Mahesh Babu
Sidelights
Pokiri was remade in Tamil in 2007 by the same name with Vijay in the lead role. It was a super hit in Tamil too. It was again remade in Kannada cinema as Porki (2010).
Salman Khan had remade Pokiri as Wanted in Bollywood in 2009. It was the biggest hit that year.
Mahesh Babu’s sister Manjula had co-produced the movie along with Puri Jagannath.
The film was even screened at the IIFA film festival held in Dubai in 2006.