Ashta Chamma
Promotional poster for the film
Directed by	Mohan Krishna Indraganti
Produced by	Ram Mohan
Written by	Mohan Krishna Indraganti
Starring	Colours Swathi Nani Srinivas Avasarala Bhargavi Tanikella Bharani
Music by	Kalyani Malik
Cinematography	P.G. Vinda
Editing by	Marthand K. Venkatesh
Release date(s)	September 5, 2008
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Ashta Chamma (Telugu: అష్టా చమ్మా) is a 2008 Indian comedy film written and directed by Mohan Krishna Indraganti. Filmed in Telugu, the film deals with four quirky friends interwoven in a romantic narration. The film stars Colours Swathi, Nani, Srinivas Avasarala, Bhargavi as the four friends and Tanikella Bharani in a supporting role.

Contents 1 Production 2 Plot 3 Trivia 4 References

[edit] Production

Prior to this film, Indraganti debuted with the National Film Award-winning Grahanam (2005) and followed it up with Mayabazaar (2006). Taking the central idea from Oscar Wilde's play, The Importance of Being Earnest, he began writing the story for this film.^[1][2] While working on the characters, the story became more female-centric and thereby departed from Wilde's narration. After working on the story's draft of 225 pages for about two months, he began fine-tuning it for another few months.^[3] The film was produced by Ram Mohan, his first production venture. Mohan, a management graduate from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, previously worked for UTV Software Communications. While Kalyani Malik was hired to compose the music and the background score, Marthand K. Venkatesh was chosen as film's editor.^[3]

The film's title is the namesake of a traditionally and leisurely played game from the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The game, which is otherwise known as Ludo, was released as a part of the film's promotional efforts.^[3]

While Indraganti wanted Bhumika Chawla to be cast in the leading role, he chose Colours Swathi in the supporting role. However when he was unsuccessful in hiring Chawla for the film, he promoted Swathi to the lead role.^[1] Swati held a good opinion about Indraganti, whom she thought to be quite an educated director.^[4] Once being confirmed for the role, Indraganti was scouting for three more actors to form the primary cast. During this period, Swathi completed her on-going shoot of Tamil film, Subramaniapuram.^[4]

[edit] Plot

The movie starts with a small introduction that all the female fans of actor Mahesh Babu were "angry" on him when he got married. Even the heroine is one of them, though she is a die hard fan. Although her aunt (Jhansi) keeps telling her that it's not possible to marry Mahesh she pays no heed and stays depressed for days. Finally, she compromises with her aunt by demanding that her husband name must be Mahesh. Her aunt finally relents and starts the search for the groom, though in vain.

Her neighbor, second hero, helps the heroine by searching a seemingly perfect "Mahesh". He becomes friends with him and sees that Mahesh is a classy, handsome guy. Soon, the neighbor introduces the two and the couple seem destined for love forever--until the twists come with a new heroine, her relationship with "Mahesh", new name "Ram Babu", and his past. Will their love last forever forms the rest of the story.

After the completion of this films shoot actress bhargavi was found murdered in her apartment in banjara hills.The famous asst director Mandava Prashanth was the prime witness of this case.

[edit] Trivia

The film plot is a direct rip-off from Only you starring Melisa. The concept of this movie is based on the original Ashta Chamma - Board Game.

[edit] References

Read instructions of Ashta Chamma - Board Game