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Happy Days

Happy Days (Telugu: హ్యాపీ డేస్) is a 2007 film directed by Sekhar Kammula. The film was very popular in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The target audience for this movie was primarily the engineering college students in these states.

Synopsis

Happy Days follows the life of male and female college students as they experience love, friendship, and responsibility. The film is set in a typical engineering college in Hyderabad, and revolves around the individual and collective stories of four men and women. The film opens with the introduction of the lead actors. As the film proceeds there are small fights between the best friends and in due course all the leads fall in love. Chandu falls in love with Madhu, Tyson falls in love with Shravs, Shanker falls in love with Sangeeta and Raju falls in love with Appu. Their respective relationships are the main plot of the movie.


Cast

Seniors

  • Krishnudu .... fat Senior
  • Ranadheer Reddy ..... Naveen
  • Aadarsh ..... Sanjay
  • Adithya ..... Praveen
  • Srikanth ..... CBIT
  • Nachiketh ..... 4 Feet Senior
  • Satya
  • Dileep
  • Subhash
  • Kamal
  • Praveen(CBIT)
  • Suresh
  • Krishna

Senior Girls

  • Sowjanya
  • Priyanka
  • Hima Bindu
  • Deepthi

Production

Casting

Sekhar Kammula ran a talent search at Big FM and idlebrain.com and managed to select 7 out of 8 lead actors, but had to cast Tamanna as a suitable actress was not found. Actors were chosen to suit the characters.[1] The main lead of the film was selected using the internet without any direct audition. Varun Sandesh, who played Chandu, did not audition with anyone from the Happy Days production team. He sent his photograph by email in response to idlebrain.com advertisement and subsequently sent a video clip of himself acting out certain scenes along with a song via Google Video.

Location

Most of the movie was shot in Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT), with select scenes shot outdoors. Sekhar Kammula is an alumnus of CBIT and he found it to be a suitable location for 'Happy Days'. He had to hold a special screening of Anand to the chairman of CBITand board members to convince them to give permission for an on-site shoot. Apparently, after watching Anand, the board has passed a resolution to give permission to shoot the film.[2]

Cost Cutting Measures

Sekhar Kammula cut costs of producing the film though various methods. By casting newcomers instead of established actors, he cut expenses to a reasonable level. Most of the shooting took place in the college so did not require costly sets to be constructed. By partnering with Pantaloon Group, he saved another Rs 10 lakhs in the costumes budget.[3]

Release

Happy Days was released on 28 September 2007 in the US and 2 October 2007 in India. It was released with 11 prints overseas on 28 September 2007. In addition, it was dubbed in Malayalam and released in 24 centres across Kerala.

Response

Box office

Though the film was acted entirely by unknown actors, the response was very positive and the film became a commercial hit. The film was a blockbuster in both India and United States. It collected 18 crores in 50 days.[4]

Reviews

The film generally received positive reviews.[5][6][7][8]

Awards

CineMAA Awards 2008
  • Best Film
  • Best Director - Sekhar Kammula
  • Best Story - Sekhar Kammula
  • Best Screenplay - Sekhar Kammula
  • Best Music - Mickey J. Meyer
  • Best Lyricist - Vanamali (Arey Arey)
  • Best Lyricist - Veturi (Happy Days)
  • Best Male Singer - Karthik (Arey Arey)

Music

The film has seven songs composed by Mickey J Meyer.

Posted by tamannah at 11:10 AM 0 comments
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