Jai (Pawan Kalyan) works for a mafia Don Bhagwan (Jackie Shroff). Jai is very sincere to Bhagwan but the later tries to exploit him. Bhagwan loves his son Munna (Adivi Shesh) very much who returns from abroad after 8 years. Bhagwan wants Jai to protect his son and be loyal to him. But an untoward incident forces Jai to turn against Bhagwan. Later, Jai falls in love with Sandhya (Sarah Jane Dias). What happens next, unfolds the whole story.
Trade
Panjaa presented Pawan Kalyan in new look sporting heavy beard. But the character of the movie did not sync in with fans and audience. Finally, the movie turned out as a failure at the box office.
Highlights
Panjaa is the debut Telugu film of Tamil director Vishnu Vardhan.
Two new beauties, Sarah Jane Dias and Anjali Lavania made their debuts with this movie.
Pawan Kalyan plays the role of a gangster in the movie. A role which he earlier did in Balu.
Karma fame Adivi Sesh played the role of a baddie in the movie.
Sidelights
Producers of the movie, Neelima and Nagesh are NRIs. Responding to the call of Pawan Kalyan, they returned to India to work for Praja Rajyam Party. They lost huge money in elections and to make up for the losses, Pawan Kalyan did Panjaa to them.
Vishnu Vardhan had to choose between directing Ajith in Billa 2 and Pawan Kalyan in "Panjaa" as the dates of both the movies clashed. Vishnu chose Panjaa.
Jiah Khan and Shazahn Padamsee, who paired up with Ram Charan were considered for the other female role. However, eventually King Fisher model Anjali Lavania was finalized.
Geeta Kapoor, best known for work in the song "Sheila Ki Jawani" from the Hindi film Tees Maar Khan choreographed for the item number in the movie.
The movie was later dubbed in to Tamil as "Kuri" but failed to make a mark on Tamil audience.
During the movie shoot, Yuvan Shankar Raja's mother expired. Yuvan had worked on the movie album despite the heavy loss.
Famous rapper Blaze had composed a special song and performed it live on audio release function stage.