Venkat (Prabhas) is an unemployed youth. He falls flat for Shailaja (Trisha) on a rain drenched journey and later she too. Bhadranna (Gopichand) is a notorious goon in the area. Ranga Rao (Prakash), Sailu’s father is a crooked man with full of vices. He ploys to get her married to Bhadranna for money. He plants ego problems between the couple and separates them. Rest of the story is how they unite.
Trade
There was very little buzz about the movie during production. The hype built up with the first look posters of the movie in which Trisha was shown damn gorgeous. Later on the audio scored by Devi Sri Prasad was a thumping hit and the movie went on to become a blockbuster.
Highlights
This is the first combination of Prabhas and Trisha. Later they paired up again for Pournami and Bujjigadu.
This is the first combination of director Sobhan and Prabhas. Sobhan earlier made his debut with a flop movie (Bobby) with Mahesh Babu.
This is the first appearance of Gopi Chand in a negative role.
The movie bagged several awards at various events. Some of them are:
Nandi Awards:
Best Female Playback Singer - K.S. Chitra – Nuvvostanante
Best Choreographer - Prabhu Deva
Best Audiographer - Madhusudan Reddy
Filmfare Awards:
Best Film - M.S. Raju
Best Actress - Trisha Krishnan
Best Music Director - Devi Sri Prasad
Best Female Playback Singer - K.S. Chitra
Best Cinematographer - S. Gopal Reddy
Sidelights
The film was remade in Tamil in the name Mazhai starring Jayam Ravi and Shriya Saran. It was dubbed in Hindi as Baarish.
The movie released during Sankranthi season along with biggies like Chiranjeevi’s Anji and Balakrishna’s Lakshmi Narasimha. But it went on to become a bigger hit than those movies.