Rechukka

Rechukka is a 1954 Telugu language film directed by Ghantasala Balaramaiah and P. Pullaiah and produced by Ghantasala Krishnamurthy. N. T. Rama Rao acted in the lead role as prince. Devika debuted in the film as Princess. The story was inspired by The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951) starring Tony Curtis.^[1]

The film was remade into Tamil by Kalyanaraman entitled Naattiya Thara (Template:Lang-ta). The Tamil version was released in 1955.^[2] Thanjai Ramaiah Dass wrote the dialogues and lyrics for the Tamil version while G. Ramanathan scored the music.^[3] It was also a commercial hit.

Aroordas, who was a sucessfull screenplay writer later, started his career as an assistant to Thanjai Ramaiah Dass in 1955 and assisted in writing the dialogues for this film.^[4] He has said that he named his first child as Arokyamary and also gave a pet name, Thara Devi in remembrance of the film Nattiya Thara.^[5]

The story is set in a kingdom. The chief minister wants his daughter to marry the King's only son, the future prince. The King refused the idea, and the angry minister captures and arrests the King and runs the Kingdom. A loyal countryman Veeranna (Nagabhushanam) takes the Prince and leaves him in the forest away from the evil minister's hands, but gets captured himself. The Prince, grows up as the forest chief's adopted son Kannayya (N.T. Rama Rao). Veeranna's daughter is Nana (Anjali Devi). Both of them grows up as thieves. The old King escapes finally and stays at Nana's house. Nana steals the Princess Lalita Devi's (Devika) necklace and Kannayya returns it to her. The princess falls in love with him. Nana also falls for the Kannayya too. He gets to know his true identity, defeats his enemies and gets back his Kingdom.

The Rechukka film is an outcome of Ghantasala Balaramaiah, Telugu film producer of Pratibha Pictures and General Manager and Production Executive of the company Thopalli Venkata Sundara Shivarama Sastry (better known as Pratibha Sastry). Sastry has seen the English film entitled The Prince Who Was a Thief in Mount Road. Balaramaiah prepared a story to suit local audience. The story was given to Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry, who wrote the screenplay, dialogues and lyrics for the film.

The shooting was started with N. T. Rama Rao, Anjali Devi and supporting staff and Ashwathamma as Music director. After shooting three reels including two songs, Ghantasala Balaramaiah died suddenly due to Heart attack on 29 October 1953. Ghantasala Krishna Murthy, the elder son of Balaramaiah has taken the charge of Pratibha pictures. Nageshwara Rao wished to be a part of the film after the demise of his mentor Balaramaiah. He made a cameo appearance. The film is completed with the financial involvement of Sunderlal Nahata and director P. Pullaiah.^[6]

Most of the film was shot at Revathi Studios at Madras. Prakash Studios was used for few important scenes. The forest scenes are pictured at Jamal Gardens (Now Vijaya Gardens).

For the role of Lalitha Devi, they wanted to take new actress. They have chosen Prameela, the grand daughter of Raghupathi Venkaiah to portray the character besides N.T.Ramarao. She changed her name as Devika and became a big star later years.

All the tunes for all the songs for both languages are the same.

The music was composed by G. Aswathama. Lyrics by Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry.

Music was Scored by G. Ramanathan for one song Paadi Panivome that he himself sang. Other songs were rendered by singers as per the same tune set by Aswathama in the Telugu version. Lyrics by: Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass^[3]

The film was commercial hit and ran for more than 100 days in three centres in Andhra Pradesh. Centenary celebrations are organized at Vijayawada.

• Rechukka at IMDb.
• Padi Panivome on YouTube - song scored and sung by G. Ramanathan