Run Raja Run

Raja (Sharwanand) is the son of a vegetable vendor. He constantly keeps breaking up with girlfriends because of his honesty. He meets Priya (Seerat Kapoor), and they both fall in love. Meanwhile, there are kidnappings of ministers in the city. The person who solved the mystery years ago, Police Commissioner Dileep Kumar (Sampath Raj), has an officer under him, Nayeem Basha (Adivi Sesh), who is an intelligent officer but is not appreciated for it. Raja learns that Priya is Dileep's daughter and that she is about to marry Minister Govindharaju's (Kota Srinivasa Rao) son Mukundham (Vennela Kishore).

Raja talks with Dileep, who reveals that he wants to get Priya married to Mukundham. He tricks Raja into kidnapping one of the big shots in city, but Raja instead kidnaps Priya, who tells him that she never loved him and only pretended so that she could go for higher studies in a foreign land. Raja, though heartbroken, takes her to her friend's house. Dileep tries to find her but is not successful. Priya starts falling for Raja. Raja calls Dileep and demands ₹ 3 crores as ransom. Nayeem informs Dileep that the kidnapper is Raja and that he tricked Dileep. Priya comes to know about the ransom. When she is questioning him, her father comes and arrests Raja. Dileep is happy that the kidnapper is caught, but Mukundham is then kidnapped. A ransom of 15 crores is demanded. When Dileep goes to the police station, Raja is not there.

Priya finds out from her mother that Raja's father Prakash (Jayaprakash) and Dileep were good friends, and that Prakash considered sincere policeman Karim as his own family. Prakash found that the kidnappings were planned by Raju. Prakash goes to arrest Raju, but Dileep reveals that it was his plan. Raju kills Karim. Enraged, Prakash shoots Raju and is framed for the kidnapping and jailed. Meanwhile, Dileep learns that Nayeem and Raja are in cahoots. Nayeem takes 15 crores from Raju. Prakash reveals to Dileep that Nayeem is Karim's son. Raja then sends a video to the media in which Dileep has admitted to be the kidnapper. Nayeem takes the 500 crores from Raju's house and donates it to the orphanage. Dileep is arrested as Raju dies of his gunshot wound. Finally, Priya and Raja reunite.

• Sharwanand as Raja
• Seerat Kapoor as Priya
• Adivi Sesh as Nayeem Basha
• Sampath Raj as Police Commissioner Dileep Kumar
• Jayaprakash as Prakash
• Kota Srinivasa Rao as Minister Govindharaju
• Vennela Kishore as Mukundham (Raju's son)
• Ali as Doctor
• Vidyullekha Raman as Bujjima
• Ajay Ghosh as Raju's assistant
• Chatrapathi Sekhar as Md. Khalid Basha
• Sujeeth as himself
• Rudra Prakash

Sharwanand was approached by short film maker Sujeeth to play the male protagonist in the film and the former accepted the offer after expressing few doubts. He was forced by the makers to change his look for the film and for giving him a new look, Bhaskar designed the costumes and hair stylist Hakim Aalim was selected for the hair styling and basic look.^[5] He did not take any remuneration for the film as the producers were his friends.^[6] Seerat Kapoor was selected after conducting a photo shoot followed by a screen test after she gave her audition at Hyderabad which marked her debut in Telugu cinema.^[7] Uppalapati Pramod and Vamsi Krishna announced this film with Adivi Sesh in an important role apart from the protagonists in mid December 2013.^[8]

Further details about the project were unveiled on 10 February 2014 and the film was titled Run Raja Run after one of the short films directed by Sujeeth and the producers confirmed that the film is a bilingual. R. Madhi was declared as the cinematographer and M. Ghibran was selected as the music director marking his Telugu debut.^[9] On 10 February 2014 the press release confirmed that Adivi Sesh, Sampath Raj, Jayaprakash, Vennela Kishore, Ali, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Vidyullekha Raman and Ajay Ghosh are part of the principal cast.^[9] By mid-February 2014, about 50% of the film's shoot was complete and the shooting was undergoing at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad before shifting to Goa for a month-long schedule.^[10]

The film received positive reviews from critics. Deccan Chronicle wrote "Director Sujeeth's story is not unique, but his screenplay makes it interesting. A pat to the young director's back for coming up with a breezy entertainer. There are a few minus points too as the beginning of the film is a bit boring. The film, however, slowly picks up."^[11] Sify gave a review stating "Overall Run Raja Run is a fun caper, with an impressive second half. For Sharwanand this film is a perfect comeback. The pluses in this film are the lead hero's performance and the twists and turns. Run Raja Run promises good entertainment this monsoon."^[12] IndiaGlitz gave a review stating "The director manages to narrate a story with so many non-obvious ideas, in a simpler way. The style of screenplay has snatches of the narration we saw in 'Kick' but with a difference. Sujeeth's writing and execution is creative. With no action and only mind games and slick and snazzy presentation, the film will be lapped up by the class movie-loving audience" and rated the film 3.25/5.^[13]

On the other hand, The Hindu wrote "What seem to be attempts at humour just end up being crass and forced. However, things do pick up towards the climax and all the pointless sequences seem to fall into place. It is with this twist that the film finally becomes interesting."^[14] The Times of India wrote "Sujeeth gets a lot of things right in his debut film; however, it still is a lost opportunity. The emphasis on style takes over the sharp writing that's quite visible in the first act. For all you know, Run Raja Run could have been a truly unique and quirky film in a long time. Alas, it ends up as a light-hearted entertainer which begins to take itself too seriously after a point and loses its edginess in the process" and rated the film 3/5.^[15]

Ghibran composed the music and background score for this film which marked his debut in Telugu.^[16] He was approached by Sujeeth, Uppalapati Pramod and R. Madhi to compose the film's music at Chennai when Pramod was impressed with his work in Naiyaandi and Sujeeth was impressed with his work in Vaagai Sooda Vaa.^[17] Ghibran, who wanted to do a Telugu film then, accepted their proposal. There were 5 songs in the film's soundtrack in which one was a fast beat song, one was a melody, one was a pub song and the other two were of different genres. Ramajogayya Sastry wrote three songs while Sri Mani wrote the other two songs.^[18] The film's soundtrack was released on 15 June 2014 by hosting a promotional event at GRIET in Hyderabad and the album was marketed by Junglee Music.^[19][20]

The film's soundtrack received positive reviews from critics. The Times of India wrote "All in all, the album has peculiar compositions and Ghibran delivers promising tracks with refreshing feel mainly targeted at youth" and rated the soundtrack 3/5.^[21] IndiaGlitz wrote "'Run Raja Run's music director seems to have begun with experimenting a bit. Maybe he was wanted that way by his director. The album has got a quirky side to it. A song crooned by Chinmayi, that comes in the end, is the best in two senses: the music as well as its ability to undo the offbeat feel of the whole album. Watch out the presentation on the screen as much as the songs."^[22]

South Indian International Movie Awards – winner

• Best Debut Director (Telugu) – Sujeeth

Filmfare Awards South – nominations

• Best Film
• Best Director – Sujeeth
• Best Actor – Sharwanand
• Best Music Director – Ghibran

• Run Raja Run at IMDb