Jalsa

Jalsa
Poster
Directed by	Trivikram Srinivas
Written by	Trivikram Srinivas
Produced by	Allu Aravind
Starring	Pawan Kalyan Ileana D'Cruz Parvati Melton Kamalinee Mukerji
Cinematography	K. V. Guhan Rasool Ellore
Edited by	A. Sreekar Prasad
Music by	Devi Sri Prasad
Distributed by	Geetha Arts
Release date	1 April 2008 (2008-04-01)
Running time	167 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Jalsa (transl. Fun) is a 2008 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film written and directed by Trivikram Srinivas and produced by Allu Aravind, under the Geetha Arts banner. The film stars Pawan Kalyan, Ileana, Parvati Melton and Kamalinee Mukerji, while Mukesh Rishi, Prakash Raj, Brahmanandam, Ali, and Sunil play supporting roles. The soundtrack of the film was composed by Devi Sri Prasad.

Released on 1 April 2008, Jalsa set multiple box office records on its opening day, achieving the highest first-day collection in Telugu cinema history and the highest for any South Indian film in a single state.^[1] It emerged as a blockbuster, becoming the highest-grossing Telugu film of the year, and was praised for its lead performances, music, humour, and witty dialogues.^[2]

The marketing of the film included the release of an action mobile video game developed by RZ2, a Goa-based firm.^[3] Owing to the film's popularity and cult status, it was re-released in 2022 and became the highest grossing Telugu re-release of all time until surpassed by another Pawan Kalyan film Kushi.^[4]

Sanjay Sahu aka Sanju is a post-graduate and works as a aerobics instructor. He is in love with Indu, who wishes to marry him. She makes him meet her father, who is a police officer and also happens to be his old acquaintance. Her father declines to approve of their love, and she is forced to marry according to her father's choice. Meanwhile, Indu's sister Bhagyamathi aka Bhagi and her friend Jyothsna aka Jo are chased by hoodlums before being rescued by Sanju. Furthermore, Jo and Bhagi are ragged in the college before being again rescued by Sanju. Both begin to like Sanju and even decide to propose their love to him without their knowledge of the other. However, it is Jo who proposes first to Sanju, who rejects her. Careful after seeing her friend's love rejected, Bhagi, with the help of Seenu, begins wooing Sanju.

Bhagi keeps wooing Sanju in different ways under Seenu's supervision. Seenu keeps advising Bhagi with new ideas to impress Sanju. With Seenu's idea, Bhagi vacates the previous tenants in Sanju's house and gets into the house to woo Sanju. She keeps trying in many ways to impress him, which evokes comedy. Bhagi keeps meeting Sanju and tries to know more about him. After many comical situations coming their way, love blossoms between them, but unfortunately at a party where Jo is also one of the attendees, she spills all the beans about Bhagi. Sanju is infuriated and ends their relationship. Later that party, however, when having a conversation with Bhagi, a drunken Sanju begins to showcase that he is not a correct fit to her, yet the unending love of Bhagi towards Sanju makes him fall for her. Both again get into a relationship, marking it with a kiss.

Meanwhile, Damodar Reddy, a powerful land grabber who takes care of all the settlements while still in jail, is out on parole. He is in search of Sanju for spoiling his land deals in the past and thrashing his son, who was one of the goons who chased Bhagi. He makes an attempt on Sanju's life but in vain. However, Sanju's friend Abhi is taken hostage during the attack. Sanju rescues Abhi but is enraged when his friends stop him from assaulting the kidnapper by questioning his authority to take the law into his hands and bringing them troubles. Sanju then reveals his flashback, in which he hailed from a poor rural family. His brother dies of heart disease as a child. His father Janardhan Sahu kills himself as crops fail, and his mother too passes away. While going to the burial ground, he repeatedly slips and swoons at a stone pillar. He plucks it out, which enrages Damodar Reddy's henchmen. When they attack him, Sanju beats them up, disappears into a forest, and joins the Naxalites. During a combing operation, he joins hands with Indu and Bhagi's father (a police officer) and his team to eliminate the team in an encounter. Sanju is then rehabilitated as a college student in Hyderabad.

Bhagi confesses to her father about her intention to marry Sanju, but her father rejects it by revealing to her about Sanju being an ex-lover of her sister Indu, and an ex-Naxal. Shocked, Bhagi agrees to get married as per her father's choice. Her father arranges the engagement of Bhagi with Raghuram. Sanju is disgusted that Bhagi has given her assent to the engagement and decides to break it. Meanwhile, Sanju learns that the man who attempted on his life is none other than Damodar Reddy and that Raghuram is Damodar Reddy's elder son. Sanju confronts Damodar Reddy in jail and challenges him. Damodar Reddy leaves jail and forcibly arranges the marriage of Raghuram with Bhagi. Sanju, meanwhile kidnaps Damodar Reddy's younger son. He then takes Damodar Reddy head-on and defeats him, ensuring that he fears death, and walks out without killing Damodar Reddy and his son, proclaiming that the art of winning a war is to defeat the enemies, not to kill them. Sanju ends up marrying Bhagi.

After a few months, Damodar Reddy, now paralyzed, dies of a heart attack on the same road on which Sanju defeated him.

The soundtrack of the film was launched on 29 February 2008. The audio rights were sold to Aditya Music for ₹90 lakh,^[6] the highest for a Telugu film of its released month.^[7] The music got very good reviews from websites^[8][9][10] and an excellent response from the public itself.^[11] The music has topped the charts for months after its release.^[12][13] Devi Sri Prasad received the 2008 Santosham Best Music Director Award for his work on the film's music.

Jalsa was released on 1 April 2008 in theaters worldwide. The film was originally scheduled to be released on 27 March 2008, but because of delays in the digital intermediate (DI) process. Jalsa was later released with 400 prints in 800 theaters worldwide across 1000 screens.^[14][15]

Jalsa was re-released in theaters worldwide on 3 September 2022, coinciding with Kalyan's birthday, with remastered picture and sound.^[16] Jalsa grossed over ₹3.25 crore in its 2022 re-release and became the highest grossing Telugu re-release of all time until surpassed by another Pawan Kalyan film Kushi.^[4][17][18] The collections of the special shows were reported to be donated to charity.^[19]

• Jalsa at IMDb