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Billa (2009 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Billa' is a 2009 Indian Telugu-language gangster film directed by Meher Ramesh. The film stars Prabhas in a dual role alongside Krishnam Raju, Anushka Shetty, Hansika Motwani, Namitha, Rahman, and Kelly Dorjee. A remake of the 2007 Tamil film 'Billa', which itself was a remake of the 1978 Hindi film 'Don' by SalimJaved, it is the second remake of 'Don' in Telugu after 'Yugandhar' (1979). The film began its production in October 2008 and was released on 3 April 2009.
Plot
The story begins with an underworld don Billa hiding and operating out of Malaysia, hiding from Interpol's international criminal list. Krishnamoorthy, an ACP working for the Interpol, has spent the last few years looking for Billa, leaving behind a life in India.
During a chase with the police, Billa is severely wounded after an accident, and dies in front of the ACP. The ACP then secretly holds a funeral for Billa. Interpol Officer Dharmendra is assigned to work with the ACP to capture the elusive Billa as no-one knows of Billa's death. The ACP keeps the death of Billa as a secret even from his fellow officers, and tracks down a look-alike called Katikaranga (Ranga), a petty thief based in Visakhapatnam. He asks Ranga to infiltrate Billa's gang by pretending to be Billa. In return, he will make sure that the children Ranga adopted, Lakshmi and Sreenu, get a proper education in Hyderabad.
The ACP trains Ranga and sends him back to Billa's gang as a person who has lost his memory. Slowly Ranga starts to learn about Billa's gang and even speaks to Devil, Billa's boss, on the phone. He also gets attracted to one of the girl members of the gang, Maya (Anushka Shetty) who had been secretly plotting to kill Billa as he killed her brother Vikram and his fiance Priya. Ranga then provides a pen drive with the secret information of the crime network to the ACP, but he is about to be killed by Maya who thinks he is Billa. At this juncture, the ACP arrives and tells her that he is Ranga and not Billa. Since then, she begins to assist Ranga and the ACP in their mission and soon falls in love with Ranga. Later before a party, Ranga secretly provides information to the ACP about a meeting of Billa's network, and Lisa, Billa's girlfriend, overhears his conversation. She challenges Ranga, but in the fight, he accidentally kills her. A shootout occurs at the party, and the ACP is secretly killed by someone, leaving his gun behind. Ranga finds the ACP's body and the gun, but is taken into the custody of the police team, now headed by Interpol Officer Dharmendra. He argues during interrogation that he is Ranga and not Billa to Dharmendra. Ranga mentions a piece of evidence the pen drive, which may prove his innocence, but the pen drive is nowhere to be found.
Unable to prove his innocence, he escapes from a police van. He phones Dharmendra and asks him to meet at the Aero bridge. Here it is revealed that Dharmendra is none other than the Underworld Crime Don Devil, and he is the one who killed ACP Krishnamoorthy. While escaping from Devil's gang, he meets Officer Adithya, who apparently had the pen drive all along, and strikes a deal with Ranga to get hold of Devil. Meanwhile, Maya has been kidnapped by Devil after she tried to defend Ranga from Devil. Maya is tied up and kept in a car with her mouth taped shut. Ranga decides to pose as Billa to Devil, and provides Russian explosives to an arms dealer Rashid, who insisted on dealing with Billa. Enraged at being slighted by Rashid, following the completion of the deal, Devil and his henchman Ranjith fight with Ranga. Soon the police arrived and Devil, posing as Dharmendra, asks the police to arrest Ranga as Billa but gets shot by the squad of police and dies as the police have wired the entire conversation between Devil and Ranga, thus proving Ranga's innocence.
It ends with Ranga returning to Visakhapatnam with Maya, and deciding to start a school and college there with the government reward given to him and four suitcases of cash he stole from Malaysia.
Cast
* Prabhas in a dual role as Billa and Ranga
* Krishnam Raju as ACP Krishnamurthy, an Indian man working for the Malaysian Police
* Anushka Shetty as Maya, Ranga's love interest
* Hansika Motwani as Priya
* Namitha as Lisa, Billa's girlfriend
* Rahman as Interpol officer Dharmendra / Devil, the main antagonist
* Adithya as Inspector Aditya
* Kelly Dorjee as Rashid Bhai
* Supreeth as Ranjit, Billa's right hand and secondary antagonist
* Ali as Shankaram, Ranga's friend
* Prabhas Sreenu as waiter in Shankaram's restaurant
* Subbaraju as Vikram, Priya's fiancee
* Phani as Ranga's friend
* Jayasudha as Janaki, Krishnamurthy's wife (cameo appearance)
* Praveen as Ranga's friend
Production
During the making of 'Kantri' (2008), actor N. T. Rama Rao Jr. expressed his intention of making 'Billa' (2007) in Telugu following his grandfather N. T. Rama Rao's 'Yugandhar' (1979). Meher Ramesh, however, felt that Rama Rao Jr. would not fit into the role at that stage of his career. Ramesh also explored the idea of making the film with Ravi Teja but dropped due to budget constraints. Ramesh later approached Prabhas who was excited to work for the project. Prabhas' uncle Krishnam Raju was also on board for a pivotal role, marking their first on-screen collaboration. Ramesh cast Anushka Shetty as the female lead. Shetty worked for over two months to slim down for the role. Hansika Motwani readily agreed to act in the film when suggested by Ramesh. Namitha, like Shetty, lost weight before signing the film. The film was shot extensively in Malaysia for three months. Filming was completed in 104 working days.
Music
Music of Billa was launched at a packed auditorium in Shilpakala Vedika on the night of 18 March 2009 with Dasari Narayana Rao, S. S. Rajamouli, V. V. Vinayak, Gopichand and Allu Arjun as guests. Dasari Narayana Rao launched the music. Mani Sharma composed music for the film and Lahari Music bought audio rights. The song "My Name is Billa" was re-used by Sharma for the Tamil film 'Sura' (2010) as "Naan Nadanthaal Adhiradi" and "Bommali " as "Thanjavoor Jillakkaari".
Release
The film was released on 3 April 2009.
References
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