Papam Pasivadu

<p>Venugopal and Janaki are a married couple. They soon have a baby boy named Gopi. During Gopi’s childhood, he contracts . His family consults their doctor to obtain the best possible treatment for him and they decide to send him to with Gopi’s uncle Pathy as their pilot. During the journey, Pathy suffers a sudden heart attack, and the plane crashes in . Gopi, with only his dog Tommy accompanying him, has to face several obstacles and finally survives to reunite with his family. After the success of (1971), which was shot mostly in deserts, its producer Atluri Purnachandra Rao wanted his next venture to also be desert-based. ‘ South African film (1969) had just been released in , and caught Rao’s attention; he commissioned to write a story based on this film, which became . The film was produced by Rao’s brother Atluri Seshagiri Rao under their home company Sri Lakshmi Productions, V. Ramachandra Rao was hired as director, M. Kannappa for cinematography, Balu for editing and S. Krishna Rao for direction. When Chukkala Veera Venkata Rambabu or “Ramu” first auditioned for the role of Gopi, he was rejected as the makers felt he was too young for the role. However, he was signed on after several negotiations. A named Tommy was cast as Ramu’s dog of the same name. Principal photography took place in March 1972. The film was shot for 27 days in the , during which Ramu and the dog playing Tommy were the only actors. It was shot near the villages in in . The film unit stayed in tents erected in open spaces outside the villages. The scenes involving Gopi’s uncle Pathy ( ), Gopi’s father Venugopal ( ), Gopi’s mother Janaki ( ), the airport official Chakrapani ( ) and Venugopal’s brother Narasimham ( ) were shot at studio sets matching the actual location, and on beaches near Madras. The forest scenes were filmed at in Tamil Nadu. The makers bought an aircraft from Madras Flying Club which cost around 2 . Due to difficulty in obtaining further dates for Nagesh, the makers chose to dub his voice. The final length of the film was 139 minutes, longer than which was 90 minutes long. The soundtrack was composed by . was publicised through publicity pamphlets of the film being thrown from helicopters in various towns, a first for Telugu cinema. was released on 29 September 1972 and became a commercial success.</p>