Ashta Chamma
Ashta Chamma (transl. A four-player board game) is a 2008 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Mohan Krishna Indraganti. The film stars Nani, Swathi Reddy, Srinivas Avasarala, and Bhargavi with Tanikella Bharani in a supporting role.[1][2] An adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest,[3] the film deals with four quirky characters interwoven in a romantic narration. Upon release, the film received positive reviews and box office success. Swathi won the Filmfare Award and Nandi Award for Best Actress for her performance as Lavanya.[4][5][6]
For the board game, see Ashta Chamma (board game).Ashta Chamma
Mohan Krishna Indraganti
Ram Mohan P
D. Suresh Babu (presenter)
Suresh Productions
- 5 September 2008
126 minutes
India
Telugu
Production[edit]
Indraganti debuted with the National Film Award-winning Grahanam (2005) and followed it up with Mayabazaar (2006). 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.[7] 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 the film's editor.[7]
The film is named after Ashta Chamma, a game from the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The game, which is otherwise known as Ludo, was released as part of the film's promotion.[7]
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.[8] After confirming Swathi for the role, Indraganti was scouting for three more actors to form the primary cast. During this period, Swathi completed the Tamil film, Subramaniapuram.[8]