Gabbar Singh (film)

Venkataratnam Naidu lives with his mother, stepfather Naidu, and a younger step-brother Ajay in Kondaveedu. His stepfather is always partial towards his step-brother much to the anger of Venkataratnam. He stops bothering about what other people think about him and renames himself after the fictional character "Gabbar Singh".[lower-alpha 1] As his anger towards his brother and father grows, Gabbar Singh runs away from home. His stepfather, Naidu gets hold of him and admits him in a boarding school away from Kondaveedu.

21 years later, Gabbar Singh is a police officer posted as the Circle Inspector (CI) for the Kondaveedu region. His anger towards his brother and stepfather remains the same and lives separately from them. Though he wants to live with his mother in his new house, she wants him to stay with her and Naidu. Ajay is a gambling addict and has debts all over the village. Gabbar Singh falls in love with a handicraft vendor named Bhagya Lakshmi, whom he chances upon during a police raid that he conducts against gambling.

Siddhappa Naidu is a goon in Kondaveedu who With the help of his uncle, aspires to become the MLA of that region in the upcoming by-election. He wants to be nominated by the ruling party. Though Siddhappa despises Gabbar Singh for obstructing his illegal affairs, he tries to appreciate him. Gabbar Singh refuses and tells Siddhappa that he actually knows who he is and tells him to behave himself. Angered by Gabbar Singh's response, Siddhappa sends goons to disrupt the market yard in Kondaveedu. Gabbar Singh confronts the goons and defeats them with ease to reopen the market yard. Enraged Siddhappa now plans to kill Gabbar Singh but his uncle instead advises him to speak with the Home Minister about transferring Gabbar Singh out of Kondaveedu. Siddhappa and his uncle meet the minister, who simply denies their request. He also advises Siddhappa to make peace with Gabbar Singh or it would hurt his political aspirations.

Meanwhile, Gabbar Singh meets Bhagya Lakshmi and proposes marriage. She rejects by saying that she has to look after her ailing father, who is an alcoholic and she cannot marry while he is alive. Gabbar Singh then comes home to find his mother dead. He goes to his stepfather to make peace, as he is the only family left. His stepfather rejects and despises him as an outcast. Gabbar Singh is then attacked at the handicraft exhibition by Siddhappa's men when he is with Bhagya Lakshmi; he kills all of them in a fight. He confronts Siddhappa and warns him to stop bothering him and tells him that he will never allow Siddhappa to become an MLA.

Provoked by Siddhappa's men, Gabbar Singh's brother hits one of his creditors brutally and injuring him. Siddhappa calls the police station to warn them about the fight. Gabbar Singh beats up his brother in public, thus disgracing him. Siddhappa decides to take advantage of the situation and suspend Gabbar Singh. However, Naidu resolves the situation by accepting an apology from Gabbar Singh. Angered by the outcome, Siddhappa tells Gabbar Singh that something big will happen in the next 24 hours and challenges him to stop it. Gabbar Singh interrogates the henchmen of Siddhappa and finds out that Siddhappa arranged the marriage of Bhagya Lakshmi with a local merchant by paying her father a lot of money to enrage Gabbar Singh. Gabbar Singh goes to the wedding and confronts Bhagya Lakshmi about whether she loves him or not. Bhagya Lakshmi reveals her love and Gabbar Singh rescues and marries her in the same event.

Siddhappa, as a last effort tries to bribe the high command to get a party nomination to contest in the election. He offers ₹50 million to get the ticket. Gabbar Singh learns of the arrangement and steals the money that Siddhappa sends to the high command. Gabbar Singh's brother in desperate need of money is approached by Siddhappa. He offers help and money and in exchange asks him to work for his elections. Siddhappa orders him to deliver a cellphone (an iPhone 4 box) and a box of sweets to the Minister's house. But, unknown to him, a bomb has been placed in the sweet box, and kills the minister. Knowing that it was Gabbar Singh's brother who did the blast, the district superintendent suspends Gabbar Singh. Gabbar Singh confronts his stepfather Naidu tells him about his brother. Naidu suffers a heart attack after hearing the news and is hospitalized. Gabbar Singh takes care of Naidu at the hospital, thus bonding again. Gabbar's brother who is shocked by the events and the blast convinces Siddhappa to kill Gabbar before the latter catches him. Although he has no intention to kill his brother, he accepts to do it to escape from them and meets Gabbar Singh. He confesses to Gabbar that he was sent to kill him by Siddhappa. Gabbar tries to take him to the commissioner for a confession against Siddhappa. But Siddhappa calls Gabbar on his phone and reveals to him that he killed Gabbar's mother when he came to Gabbar's old home in search of his money. In a final battle, Gabbar arrives to Siddhappa's house and takes down the goons, and kills Siddhappa. Gabbar Singh later hires most of the Siddhappa's henchmen and gives them low-profile police jobs.

The film was a remake of Dabangg (2010). Several new scenes were included in the Telugu version like the "Antakshari" and "Kabaddi" sequences. Harish said: "After watching Dabangg, I analysed why it became a hit. It is a multi-layered film with a rustic backdrop. It has Vishal Bharadwaj and Anurag Kashyap type of treatment to it. It’s a completely different genre film for Salman Khan. The hero has grey shades to him. [..] The script has a typical 70s type of Manmohan Desai's commercial formula".[20]

Few dialogues were written for and uttered by Pawan Kalyan's character in the film. Dialogues like "Naku konchem thikka undi, kani daniko lekka undi" (I am crazy, but my craziness has a calculation)[lower-alpha 2][38] epitomises the nature of the characterisation of cop roles in Telugu cinema. Director Harish Shankar defended by quoting, "Fans like to see their favourite stars doing incredible things. I just tried to tweak Pawan's character for a better audience connection. The last dialogue of Pawan in the film "Police ane vaadu...Janam lo bhayam pogottevaadu avvali, kaani jananni bhayapette vaadu kaadu" (Police are there to prevent fear among people, but people should not be feared of us)[lower-alpha 2] sums up our film. I respect police officers and have made sure that we do not offend them in any way".[39] The lyrics of the song Kevvu Keka draw heavily from folk literature (Jana Padams), this art form was developed by uneducated farmers who wrote those songs to entertain themselves while working in the fields.[40]

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Devi Sri Prasad. On 15 April 2012, Pawan Kalyan along with Bandla Ganesh, Harish Shankar and few others visited Tirumala, where they released the first song from the film and soon after that they went to Visakhapatnam and visited Simhachalam Temple where they released the second song from the film.[41] The audio was released through Aditya Music label and an audio launch event took place at Shilpakala Vedika in Hyderabad on the very same day.[42]

Popular Telugu actor Kota Srinivasa Rao lent his vocals for a song in the film.[43] Lyrics for the two songs were penned by Sahithi and remaining songs were written by Ramajogayya Sastry, Chandrabose, Devi Sri Prasad and Bhaskarabhatla.[44] Devi Sri Prasad had written the lyrics for the song "Pilla".[45] There were rumours that the song called "O Bava" were circulating around the internet but Devi denied that he had composed such a song for the film and "someone have might have uploaded it 'by mistake' as our song."[46]

Gabbar Singh was initially planned to be released on Sankranthi.[47] The film was supposed to release on 27 April but was eventually released worldwide on 11 May 2012.[2][48] The film was released worldwide in around 2500 theaters.[49] Central Board of Film Certification passed the film with an 'U/A' certificate.[50] British Board of Film Classification passed the film with a '15' rating due to strong violence.[3]

Bluesky Cinemas acquired the entire overseas theatrical distribution rights.[51] TGM acquired the distribution rights for Gulf.[52] Leo Entertainment, purchased the complete UK and Europe theatrical rights of the film.[53] Elixir Entertainment bought theatrical rights for New Zealand and Australia.[54]

The success of the film made Shruti Haasan one of the most sought-after actresses in Telugu cinema.[83] The film catapulted Pawan again into beckoning after his continuous failures Puli (2010), Theenmaar (2011) and Panjaa (2011).[84] Nisha Kothari starrer Bullet Rani is said to be inspired by Gabbar Singh. Suresh Goswami, director of the film clarified that "I don't mind if my film is called the female version of Gabbar Singh, but it's definitely not a spoof. In fact, Nisha's role is inspired by Pawan's tough cop act in his film".[85] Teaser of Aagadu (2014) was also said to be inspired by that film.[86]

The films Kevvu Keka (2012), Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde (2013) and Pilla Nuvvu Leni Jeevitham (2014) were named after the songs from the film.[87][88] The song "Kevvu Keka" was parodied in Atharintiki Daaredi (2013).[89] The "Antakshari" sequence was parodied in Shadow (2013), featuring "Kevvu Keka".[90] In Naayak (2013), Nayak (Ram Charan) and Nandini (Amala Paul) are seen watching the Bengali dub of Gabbar Singh in a theatre.[91] In Race Gurram (2014), Lucky (Allu Arjun) and Spandana (Shruti Haasan) are watching Gabbar Singh at a cafe.[92] The track "Pillaa" can be heard during the boardroom scene in Trivikram Srinivas's Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (2020), with Bantu (Allu Arjun) and Sitaram (Sunil) dancing on this song.[93]

Pawan Kalyan announced his intention to star in Gabbar Singh 2, which he would begin working on after his film Atharintiki Daaredi released in October 2013.[94] However, the film was postponed due to the political entry of Pawan Kalyan and was set to go on floors in December 2014. The film will not be a prequel or sequel to the original Gabbar Singh, but a stand-alone film within the Gabbar Singh franchise and the film was scripted by Kalyan himself.[95] Sampath Nandi has been named as the film's director, with Devi Sri Prasad set to compose the film's music.[96] Later, K. S. Ravindra (Bobby) of Power fame was announced as the director.[97] Anisha Ambrose was announced as the lead female role; however, she was replaced by Kajal Agarwal. The regular shooting for Gabbar Singh 2 commenced on 29 May 2015 at Malshej Ghats in Maharashtra.[98] The film (later titled Sardaar Gabbar Singh) was released in April 2016.[99] The sequel however received mixed reviews from critics and bombed at the box office.[100][101]

• Official website
• Gabbar Singh at IMDb