Sakshi

<p>Kishtaiah is a naïve and bucolic boatman living in Dachampaadu, an in the belt. In the same area lives Fakeeru, a dreaded criminal. The village head, known by his title Munasabu, hires Fakeeru as his lorry driver to transport coconuts to the town. The only person Fakeeru cares for in the village is his sister Chukka. He abandons Ratthi, a woman who was madly in love with him. Kishtayya’s uncle Gourayya and his fellow guard are murdered by Fakeeru when trying to stop him from stealing coconuts from Munasabu s garden. As Kishtayya is the sole witness to these murders, the village elders force him to testify against Fakeeru in court. Fakeeru is arrested, but vows revenge. He escapes from prison, and no villager gives Kishtayya shelter. Chukka marries Kishtayya, in the hope that her brother would not kill him. Fakeeru is unaware of this and attacks Kishtayya, who eventually abandons his naïve persona and kills Fakeeru. All the villagers who earlier shunned Kishtayya now surround him, but Kishtayya, disgusted with their selfish behaviour, leaves the village and surrenders to the police. was a story written by and published in the 28 October 1959 issue of , a weekly newspaper. The story was inspired by the American film (1952), retaining the plot element of a man sending a dreaded criminal to prison, and the criminal vowing revenge. For his directorial debut, Ramana’s friend decided to adapt . The film adaptation was produced by Suresh Kumar and Seshagiri Rao under Nandana Films. P. N. Selvaraj was chosen as the cinematographer at Bapu’s suggestion. Bapu also worked as art director alongside Bhavaraju Seetharamudu, an engineer who helped the unit by laying new roads. Ramana wrote the film’s dialogue, with most of it being in dialect. Satyam handled the editing. was cast as the male lead Kishtayya. R. Ranga Rao was cast as Karanam in his acting debut, and later became known as . Krishna’s future wife was cast as the female lead Chukka, and this was the first film where they acted together. Before the commencement of , Bapu took lessons on how to deal with , mid-close-up and from Kabir Das. became the first Telugu film to be shot completely in outdoor locations. , a village located on the banks of the , was chosen as the shooting location. According to Nirmala, after each day’s shoot ended, Bapu “used to draw lines of his next day’s shooting. He always drew his thoughts on paper so that everyone was comfortable when the shooting started.” The scene depicting Kishtayya and Chukka’s marriage was shot at the Meesala Krishnudu temple of Pulidindi. The entire film was completed in less than 20 days. The calls “a rare instance of late 60s New Indian Cinema aestheticism in Telugu”. According to s Srivathsan Nadadhur, “The film not only lays importance on the crime angle, but also emphasises the need for humans to stand up for each other in times of crisis.” The soundtrack was composed by . was released on 1 July 1967. It was publicised via posters with the tagline “20 rojullo teesina chitram” (the film which was shot in less than 20 days), and rival producer caustically commented, “20 rojullo teeste 20 rojule aaduddi” (the film will only run 20 days), a view shared by many others in the Telugu film industry. Despite this, the film received critical acclaim and ran for nearly a month, recovering its investment and making a marginal profit. It was later screened at the Tashkent film festival in 1968, where it was also well received.</p>