Little Soldiers

Last updated

Little Soldiers
Little soldiers movie.png
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Gunnam Gangaraju
Written byGunnam Gangaraju
Produced byGunnam Gangaraju
Starring
Cinematography Rasool Ellore
Edited byMohan Ramarao
Music by Sri
Distributed byFont Films
Release date
  • 2 February 1996 (1996-02-02)
CountryIndia
LanguageTelugu
Budget₹1.06 crore [1]

Little Soldiers is a 1996 Telugu-language children's film written, directed, and produced by Gunnam Gangaraju. [2] [3] [4] The film stars Kavya, Baladitya, Kota Srinivasa Rao, and Brahmanandam, with a soundtrack composed by Sri. [5]

Contents

Upon release, the film and the soundtrack received positive reviews. It has garnered six state Nandi Awards including the Nandi Award for Best Feature Film (silver), [6] in addition to the National Film Award for Best Child Artist (Kavya). [5] [4] The film was screened at the International Film Festival of India. [7] [3] The film has also been dubbed in Tamil as Kutti Sippaigal. [8]

Plot

The story starts off with Bunny aged three and Sunny aged nine, who are siblings. They quarrel a lot but love each other dearly. The children in the neighborhood are cautious about the sibling duo due to the mischievous nature of Bunny. Their father Aravind is a jingle composer estranged from his father for choosing music over a career in the army. Aravind marries Anita and raises his family without the blessings of his father. Anita is weary and has to constantly keep up with Sunny and Bunny's little tantrums.

Rajeswari, a wealthy widow of a royal family, disowns her daughter, Anita, for marrying a no-good guitar-strummer and wills her estate to her brother, Seshagiri. Some years on, Rajeswari suffers a stroke and a change of heart. She decides to bequeath her property to her daughter and sets Seshagiri to the task of locating Anita and her progeny. Seshagiri and his wastrel son who were living off Rajeswari, are jolted. With the help of a professional killer, they hatch a plan to engineer the deaths of Anita and her family in the form of an accident, so as to avoid any suspicion.

Aravind, Anita, and their two children go on a singing, road tour. They are followed by the killer in a truck. Meanwhile, Aravind explains to his children about their grandfather being an Army Major and how he fell in love with their mother. After a successful musical tour, the dreaded accident takes place on the way back home and the parents are killed. But Sunny and Bunny escape. As the two kids are alone at home, the professional killer makes an attempt to snuff them out with a gas leak. Fortunately, they are saved by their grandfather who arrives on time.

General Harischandra Prasad is living alone on a farm after retirement. On learning that his son, Aravind, and daughter-in-law, Anita have been killed in a road accident, he goes in search of his two orphaned grandchildren. He takes Sunny and Bunny to the village where they meet Gun (Bramhanandam) who befriends them. The killer tries to kill the children again by releasing a snake into the bathroom, but Sunny cleverly escapes, earning the praise of his grandfather. Seeing his bravery, Harishchandra Prasad decides to send him to a Sainik boarding school, which is only for boys. Sunny and Bunny are heartbroken at the separation and escape from the train station the next day, with only a bag containing their maternal grandmother's address, who lives in Vizag. They climb into the trunk of a car, which coincidentally happens to be the car of Seshagiri's son and the killer. On finding them in the trunk, Seshagiri's son tricks them and throws them off of a bridge into a canal. Sunny and Bunny swim to the other side of the canal and escape. They reach Vizag on a bus and try to retrieve the bag containing the address from the car. They sneak into the house with the car (which unknown to them, happens to be their grandmother's house). Seshagiri finds them and tries to hand them over to the killer but Rajeswari Devi (their grandmother) takes them in and decides to help them.

On the day of their mother's birthday, Rajeswari realizes that Sunny and Bunny are her grandchildren and that her daughter was dead. They mourn for Aravind and Anita and Rajeswari takes the children to their grandfather to make amends. Harishchandra Prasad, who realizes his mistake of forcing his dreams on his children, gladly accepts their apology and apologizes in return.

Meanwhile, Seshagiri realizes that the situation is going out of hand and plans to kill them, dump their bodies in the house and burn the house down on Diwali, on the pretext of passing it as an accident. Harishchandra Prasad takes his grandchildren to the nearby forest for camping and by the time they return, Seshagiri, his son, and the killer attack them. Bunny and Sunny escape into the forest alone and the trio of villains chase them. The resourceful Bunny and Sunny confront the killers and give them their just deserts, with the help of the traps they set earlier with their grandfather while camping. During the chase, their grandfather arrives and joins them, and they succeed in eliminating the villains. The grandfather salutes them proudly as they turned into the soldiers he had wished for. (The credits roll.)

Cast

Production

Gunnam Gangaraju was running a greeting cards business named 'Font Cards' which was doing well at the time. But he was interested in filmmaking, so he planned to do a film. He started the film Little Soldiers with a story he had written back in 1982 or 1984. [1] [3] [9] Initially, it was supposed to be produced by someone else with Gangaraju directing it. When the producer backed out, Gangaraju himself produced the film. [1]

He said the hardest part about the film was making the three-year-old girl Kavya, who played one of the prominent characters in the film, to act. she dubbed in her own voice for all the scenes by learning Telugu in 3 months. [9] As per Gangaraju, he wrote the climax booby traps sequence years before the release of Home Alone (1993). [1]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is composed by Sri. [5]

SongSinger
"I Am a Very Good Girl"Deepika, Vishnukanth
"Maa Father O Tiger" Mano
"Adagaalanundi Oka Doubtuni" Sri, Deepika, Vishnukanth
"Oho Vendi Vennela"Ram Chakravarthy, M. M. Srilekha, Vishnukanth
"Sarele Vooruko Pareshaanenduko"Sri
"Evadandi Veedu Robinhood Laa"Mano
"Ek Do Teen, Aage Chal"Ravi

Reception

Writing for The News Minute in June 2019, Sankeertana Varma stated, "Little Soldiers plays a rather tricky yet ultimately rewarding game of perspectives where the audience is made to empathise with the character that's on screen in the scene they're watching." [10]

Box office

Gangaraju mentioned that he had invested ₹1.06 crore on the film and recovered ₹50–60 lakh from it as advances and incurred a loss of around ₹50 lakh. [11] [1] He feels the film would have performed better with a different publicity strategy. [1] [3] He also mentioned the long shooting time as a reason for the film's losses. [9]

Awards

National Film Awards
Nandi Awards - 1996 [13]

Related Research Articles

<i>Daddy</i> (2001 film) 2001 Telugu film directed by Suresh Krissna

Daddy is a 2001 Telugu-language family drama film directed by Suresh Krissna. It stars Chiranjeevi, Simran and Ashima Bhalla, with music composed by S. A. Rajkumar. The film was produced by Allu Aravind under the Geetha Arts banner. The film was dubbed into Tamil and Hindi as Dance Master and Meri Izzat in 2003 and 2008 respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chandra Sekhar Yeleti</span> Indian film director (born 1973)

Chandra Sekhar Yeleti is an Indian film director known for his works in Telugu cinema. He made his directorial debut with the Neo-noir crime film, Aithe, which received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu, and the Nandi Award for Best Story for that year. Another neo-noir film Anukokunda Oka Roju garnered two State Nandi Awards, including Best Screenplay for Yeleti.

<i>Anukokunda Oka Roju</i> 2005 Indian film

Anukokunda Oka Roju is a 2005 Indian Telugu-language neo-noir mystery-thriller film written and directed by Chandra Sekhar Yeleti and produced by Gangaraju Gunnam and Venkat Dega. The film stars Jagapathi Babu, Charmy and Shashank with the music composed by M. M. Keeravani.

<i>Chakram</i> (2005 film) 2005 film

Chakram is a 2005 Indian Telugu-language drama film written and directed by Krishna Vamsi. It stars Prabhas in lead role as the titular character, while Asin and Charmy Kaur play the female leads. The music was composed by Chakri.

<i>Aadavari Matalaku Arthale Verule</i> 2007 Indian film

Aadavari Matalaku Arthale Verule is a 2007 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film written and directed by Selvaraghavan. The film stars Venkatesh and Trisha while Sriram, Kota Srinivasa Rao, K. Viswanath, and Sunil play supporting roles. The music composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. The film's title is based on a song from Missamma (1955), which is partially featured in this film.

<i>Amma Cheppindi</i> 2006 Indian film

Amma Cheppindi is a 2006 Telugu-language drama film written and direction by Gangaraju Gunnam. Sharwanand, Shriya Reddy, and Suhasini play the lead roles while Suman, Nagendra Babu, and Pavan Malhotra play supporting roles. M. M. Keeravani provided the music and background score for the film, cinematography was by Gangaraju's son, Sandeep, and editing by Mohan Rama Rao. The film Producer Gangaraju Gunnam won Nandi Special Jury Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kota Srinivasa Rao</span> Indian actor and politician

Kota Srinivasa Rao is an Indian character actor known for his work primarily in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He has also starred in a few films in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam. As a former politician, Rao has served as the MLA from Vijayawada East in Andhra Pradesh, India from 1999 to 2004. He made his debut with the Telugu film Pranam Khareedu in 1978. He starred in over 750 feature films. He has received nine state Nandi Awards in various categories of villain, character actor, and supporting actor. In 2012, he has garnered the SIIMA Award for his work in Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum. In 2015, he received India's fourth highest civilian honour Padma Shri for his contribution to Indian cinema.

<i>Lakshyam</i> (2007 film) 2007 Indian film

Lakshyam is a 2007 Indian Telugu-language action film produced by Nallamalupu Srinivas (Bujji) on Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Productions and directed by Srivass. It stars Gopichand, Jagapati Babu, Anushka Shetty and music is composed by Mani Sharma. It was later remade in Tamil as Maanja Velu, in Bengali as Fighter, and in Bengali Bangladesh as Darowaner Chele, and in Kannada as Varadhanayaka. The film won two Nandi Awards and one Filmfare Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gangaraju Gunnam</span> Indian film director

GunnamGangaraju is an Indian producer, screenwriter, and director known for his works in Telugu cinema and Telugu television. He is best known as the creator and co-producer of the TV sitcom Amrutham (2001–2007), widely considered to be the greatest Telugu comedy TV series of all time.

<i>Varudu</i> 2010 Indian film

Varudu (transl. Bridegroom) is a 2010 Indian Telugu-language romantic action film directed by Gunasekhar in his tenth directorial film. This film stars Allu Arjun, Arya, and Bhanu Sri Mehra, while Suhasini Mani Ratnam, Ashish Vidyarthi, and Brahmanandam, among others, play supporting roles. It was produced by D. V. V. Danayya. The music was composed by Mani Sharma, and the film released on 31 March 2010. The movie opened up to highly negative reviews and was a box-office disaster.

<i>Nuvvu Nenu</i> 2001 Telugu film directed by Teja

Nuvvu Nenu is a 2001 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film directed by Teja who co-wrote it with Dasaradh. The film stars Uday Kiran and Anita while Sunil, Banerjee, Tanikella Bharani, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, and Telangana Shakuntala play the supporting roles. This is the official debut film of Anita Hassanandani.

<i>Bobbili Brahmanna</i> 1984 Indian film

Bobbili Brahmanna is a 1984 Telugu-language action drama film directed by K. Raghavendra Rao. It was produced by U. Suryanarayana Raju for the studio Gopi Krishna Movies. The film stars Krishnam Raju, Sharada, and Jayasudha as lead actors, and is scored by K. Chakravarthy. The film was blockbuster hit at the box office. The film won three Nandi Awards and one Filmfare Award South.

<i>Brundavanam</i> 1992 Indian film

Brundavanam is a 1992 Indian Telugu-language comedy film co-written and directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. It stars Rajendra Prasad and Ramya Krishna, with music composed by Madhavapeddi Suresh. The film was produced by B. Venkatarama Reddy under the Chandamama Vijaya Combines banner. The film won two state Nandi Awards.

<i>100% Love</i> (2011 film) 2011 Indian film

100% Love is a 2011 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy film directed by Sukumar and produced by Bunny Vasu under the banner Geetha Arts. The film stars Naga Chaitanya and Tamannaah with music composed by Devi Sri Prasad. It revolves around Balu and Mahalakshmi, cousins who share a love–hate relationship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B. V. Nandini Reddy</span> Indian film director

B. V. Nandini Reddy is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu cinema and television. She debuted with 2011 Telugu film, Ala Modalaindi.

<i>Adhinayakudu</i> 2012 Indian film

Adhinayakudu is a 2012 Indian Telugu-language action film, produced by M. L. Padma Kumar Chowdhary under Sree Keerthi Creations banner, directed by Paruchuri Murali and cinematography by T. Surendra Reddy. The film stars Nandamuri Balakrishna, Jayasudha, Lakshmi Rai, Sukanya, Saloni with Pradeep Rawat, Aditya Menon, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Murali Sharma, Rahman and Brahmanandam in supporting roles and music composed by Kalyani Malik. Balakrishna played a triple role as a grandfather, father and son for the first time on screen in this film.

Nanna or Nana was a Telugu television show. The show aired on Gemini TV from 19 April 2004 as a bi-weekly serial, ending on 25 September 2005 with 86 episodes. The serial was based on a novel by Malladi Venkata Krishna Murthy which was earlier made into a feature film. The serial won the Best T.V. Serial - 2004 Nandi Award.

Inturi Srinivasa Rao, better known as Vasu Inturi, is an Indian actor and writer who works in Telugu films and television. He is known for the role of Sarvam in the TV sitcom Amrutham, which won him Nandi TV Award for Best Comedian in 2007. Inturi also worked as an assistant director and director on the series and wrote some episodes. Later, he wrote and directed the TV series Gangatho Rambabu. In 2014, he co-wrote Amrutham Chandamamalo, the first Indian space comedy film, with Gangaraju Gunnam.

<i>Amrutham</i> (TV series) Indian Telugu-language TV sitcom by Gunnam Gangaraju

Amrutham is an Indian Telugu-language television sitcom created and produced by Gunnam Gangaraju. It originally aired on Gemini TV for six years from 18 November 2001 to 18 November 2007 in 313 episodes. It is widely regarded as the greatest Telugu comedy TV series of all time. Most of the episodes were written by Gunnam Gangaraju along with Vasu Inturi who also played the character of Sarvam. Amrutham is especially noted for its clean, family-friendly humour and its satirical takes on everyday issues. The topics of satire are diverse — soap operas, popular films, competitive exams, superstitions, game shows, contemporary politics, current affairs etc.

Rama Rajamouli is an Indian costume designer and film stylist, who primarily works in Telugu cinema. Rama made her debut with the 2001 film Student No: 1. She is known for her work in the films Magadheera (2009), Eega (2012), Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017) and RRR (2022).

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jeevi; Aditya. "Interview with Gunnam Gangaraju - Anukokunda Oka Roju". Idlebrain.com . Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  2. ↑ "Articles : Movie Retrospect : Retro: Little Soldiers (1996)". Telugu Cinema. Archived from the original on 19 August 2009. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Gunnam Gangaraju - Interview". Telugucinema.com . 5 August 2005. Archived from the original on 19 November 2006. Retrieved 22 June 2007.
  4. 1 2 "Little Soldiers Kavya Wedding Photos". Lovely Telugu. 23 December 2015. Archived from the original on 26 December 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 "Little Soldiers Reviews, Photo Gallery, Songs, Cast and Crew". Bharat Movies. Archived from the original on 15 June 2007. Retrieved 22 June 2007.
  6. ↑ "Nandi Awards - 1996 - Winners & Nominees". awardsandwinners.com.
  7. 1 2 "44th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals . Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
  8. ↑ "Kutti Sippaigal". Amazon Prime Video . Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  9. 1 2 3 "ప్రభుత్వ జోక్యంతోనే టికెట్‌ ధరల సమస్య.. అక్కడ థియేటర్‌కు రూ.కోటి లంచం ఇవ్వాలి". Eenadu (in Telugu). Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  10. ↑ "Made 23 years ago, Telugu film 'Little Soldiers' is still charming: Here's why". The News Minute. 15 June 2019.
  11. ↑ "Interview with Gangaraju Gunnam about Amrutham Chandamamalo". Idlebrain.com . 15 May 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  12. ↑ "'Baby' Kavya's grand reception in Hyderabad - Times of India". The Times of India . 16 January 2017.
  13. ↑ "నంది అవార్డు విజేతల పరంపర (1964 - 2008)" [A series of Nandi Award Winners (1964 - 2008)](PDF). Information & Public Relations of Andhra Pradesh (in Telugu). 13 March 2010. p. 74. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2021.

Little Soldiers at IMDb

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.