Saakshyam

Saakshyam
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sriwass
Written by	Sriwass
Dialogues by	Sai Madhav Burra
Produced by	Abhishek Nama
Starring	Bellamkonda Sreenivas Pooja Hegde Jagapathi Babu
Cinematography	Arthur A. Wilson
Edited by	Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Music by	Harshavardhan Rameshwar
Production company	Abhishek Pictures
Distributed by	Eros International Red Heart Movies
Release date	27 July 2018 (2018-07-27)[1]
Running time	164 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Box office	est. ₹22.7 crore[2]

Saakshyam (transl. Witness) is a 2018 Indian Telugu-language fantasy action film written and directed by Sriwass, and produced by Abhishek Pictures. It stars Bellamkonda Sreenivas, Pooja Hegde and Jagapathi Babu. The plot follows, Vishwa (Bellamkonda Sreenivas), a rich NRI who falls in love with Soundarya Lahari (Pooja Hegde) follows her to India and gets tangled in issues involving her family. however, he realise that it’s nature which brought him back to his native place to accomplish a mission.

The film was officially launched in May 2017. Principal photography began in July 2017 at a set at Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad, with filming taking place in Tamil Nadu, Varanasi, Karnataka, Dubai, New York City, Grand Canyon and New Jersey. Its music is scored by Harshavardhan Rameshwar, with cinematography by Arthur A. Wilson, production design by A. S. Prakash and editing by Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao.

Saakshyam was released theatrically on 27 July 2018. The film received mixed reviews from critics with praise for the VFX, dialogue, direction, lead casts performances, concept, music, background score and action sequences while criticism was directed towards the screenplay. The film was success at the box office.^[3]

A group of people forcefully taking away a cow and its calf trying to follow them. The scene shifts to the house of Raju Garu, where the family has gathered for the naming ceremony of his son. Just then, a group of people come there with the calf and inform them that Munuswamy's brothers have kidnapped the calf's mother (who belongs to the temple) along with many other cows. This leads to Raju Garu beating up Munuswamy's brother and bringing the cows back.

The news of his brothers' humiliation reaches Munuswamy, and he and his three brothers, go to Raju Garu's house, where the celebration is going on. They brutally kill every member of the family, except for Raju Garu's wife, who gets injured. Raju Garu manages to distract the brothers while his wife runs away with the child, but she becomes weak and is unable to continue due to her deep injury. Just then, the calf (whose mother was saved by Raju Garu) comes and stands in front of her. Raju Garu's wife takes this as a sign, wraps the child in a shawl, and ties him onto the calf. The villains come just in time to see the calf running away, and a chase ensures. The injured calf manages to evade the villains and land the baby on a truck carrying soil. The villains see the child falling down the cliff and believe him to be dead. In order to conceal their crime, they set fire to the cowshed, because in bad time even animals can become a prime witness to their sins.

The story then goes into a narration where the narrator explains that even though Munuswamy is happy that he has destroyed every witness to his crime, he has forgotten that the five elements of nature that are present everywhere have witnessed his crimes and will surely do justice for his atrocities.

Meanwhile, the child is carried to a soil mine, where the truck dumps him along with the soil. A Hindu saint sees the child, takes him to Kasi, and leaves him in Temple. A childless couple, Siva Prasad and his wife, are there to pray for a child and are overwhelmed to see him. Then the temple priest names him Viswaagna because this is nature's order to rise the child by them. Later the couple leaves for the US with the child.

20 years later, Siva Prasad and his wife are shown to be celebrating the success of their company. A reporter asks about their son Viswa, who would be taking over the multi-billion dollar empire, but Siva Prasad states that Viswa is not interested in taking over the business as he is interested in developing games. Viswa and his friends are introduced. They are in the process of developing a new video game, which they are sending in to a company to be released.

Unfortunately, their video gets rejected due to lack of culture factor. Viswa and his friend run into a girl named Soundarya Lahari, a Hindu Spiritual Preacher who came USA to preach on Indian mythology. Viswa is instantly smitten, so he and his friend follow her to get her help in developing the game with culture elements. However, Soundarya is offended by their offer of money and says flatly that culture is not something to be sold. Viswa and his friend help Soundarya's sister and brother-in-law to secure jobs, using his influence, which leads to Soundarya reluctantly agreeing to help Viswa.

She introduces the group to Valmiki her childhood friend an IT professional who has an ardent knowledge on Indian Mythology, who helps by giving them a unique idea for a game which resembles Viswa's life story - about a boy whose entire family was killed by villains and the five elements of nature taking revenge on the villains through the boy. Vishwa impressed with the concept of Valmiki and hired him to develop his game.

Meanwhile, Soundarya leaves for India to see her father Tagore, who was bedridden by Munuswamy's gang for fighting against them in court. Viswa follows her to India and starts developing the video game there.

Meanwhile, Munuswamy ordered to kill Soundarya because as a warning to stop Tagore on his way. Later in a couple situations Soundarya was saved by Vishwa from Veeraswamy, Munuswamy's 1st brother and eventually kill by him through the air and earth elements in nature. He was shell-shocked when he discovers the story of the video game happening in his real life. When he came to Kasi to give salutations from his mother side to kaasi Vishwanath temple there he accidentally meets 2nd brother of Munuswamy he was killed through him by element of fire. He tries his best to stop it, but in vain. Meanwhile, Munuswamy is on search of his brothers' killer.

Soundarya accepts Viswa's love for his efforts to save her from Munuswamy's brother and agrees to marry him. Meanwhile, Valmiki designs full game and come back to India and meets his grand father practicing the vedic astrology who are looking the bad omens of Munuswamy and his brothers and also fixing the marriage dates of Vishwa and Soundarya.

After hearing Valmiki's game concept he understands that this is a vengeance on Munuswamy and his brothers by the Almighty of Mother Nature because of their sins committed on Vishwa's biological parents. He remembers Valmiki that in his childhood in front of young Valmiki, Youth Munuswamy and his brothers criticizes the astrologer and denies god to leave on their own terms. He reveals to Valmiki that this screenplay was written by the mother nature through him, she witnessed all the incidents and selected him to design the situations and it cannot be stopped by anyone. Meanwhile, Viswa's business rival, Shakti join hands with Munuswamy for taking over his major stakes in India and abducts them, then he threatens Vishwa to give them the shares documents. Vishwa comes to deal with them finally, the nature elements of fire, water, earth, air take revenge on all the villains through Viswa which was witnessed by the other element Sky.

In February 2017, it was reported that Bellamkonda Sreenivas would collaborate with director Sriwass for his next project.^[4][5] Director Sriwass narrated the script to Bellamkonda Sreenivas a couple of months before the release of Jaya Janaki Nayaka (2017). In the first narration itself, Sreenivas liked it and said okay to the project.^[6] Writer Sai Madhav Burra was signed for the dialogues for the film.^[7] The film was produced by Abhishek Nama under his banner Abhishek Pictures.^[8]

"This is going to be my sixth film. Its story and script is going to be completely different from my previous films. It is written keeping the changing trends in mind, and to suit all sections", Sriwass on the story.^[9]

The film's launch event with a puja ceremony was held on 21 May 2017 at Ramanaidu Studios, which saw the attendance of noted personalities from the Telugu film industry.^[10][11] Director Sriwass' daughter Vedaswa handed over the script while popular Raghava Lawrence switched on the camera. Director V. V. Vinayak sounded the clapboard while director Boyapati Srinu take the first shot on Sreenivas.^[12]

Sreenivas said "Once I greenlighted Saakshyam, I didn't accept any other project. Since the movie has significant action sequences, I wanted to give my best. I went to Dubai to get physically trained".^[13] A. S. Prakash served as the production designer for Saakshyam. Prior to starting the first shooting schedule, the team had constructed a set at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, for filming an action sequence.^[14]

In May 2017, Devi Sri Prasad was reported to compose music for the film,^[15] but Harshavardhan Rameshwar was signed as the music director.^[16] Other technicians includes cinematographer Arthur A. Wilson, editor Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao, production designer A. S. Prakash, stunt director Peter Hein, and costume designers Nischay Niyogi and Neeta Lulla, and dance choreographers Shobi Paulraj, Raghu and Bhanu.^[17]

According to Bellamkonda Sreenivas, the story revolves around five elements (Panchamahabhuta) – Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Aether.^[18]

About the theme, director Sriwass said "I was inspired by life. It has always been my aim to make movies in different genres and all my films have been like that so far. Saakshyam, however, is a multi-genre film which will explore five different themes with drastically different backdrops."^[19]

"There's been a lot of talk about Saakshyam being a horror thriller. That’s not true. There are no supernatural elements as such — let’s just say, the story incorporates five elements of nature that we all experience in our everyday life, into its screenplay", Sreenivas on the story of the film.^[20]

Bellamkonda Sreenivas plays video game developer and designer in the film.^[21] Sreenivas trained in BMX racing, flyboarding and jet skiing for his character in the film.^[22] In June 2017, Pooja Hegde was confirmed to play the female lead.^[23][24] Hegde portraits a middle class Brahmin girl from a traditional and conservative family. The makers were confident that she will do full justice to the role. It was reported that her outfits in the film are also going to be the highlight of the film. Neeta Lulla designed her costumes in the film.^[25] About playing spritual leader in the film, Hegde said "I have always focused on the character than my look."^[26]

Jagapathi Babu was signed in to play main antagonist role in the film.^[27] Ravi Kishan, Ashutosh Rana, Sarath Kumar, Meena, Jayaprakash, Pavitra Lokesh, Brahmaji, Madhu Guruswamy, and Vennela Kishore were also roped in to play important roles in the film.^[28][29]

Principal photography of the film commenced on 12 June 2017 in Hyderabad at a specially erected set at Ramoji Film City in the location.^[30][31] The 10-day schedule was concluded in late 2017.^[32] The second schedule of the film was filmed in July 2017.^[33] In August 2017, a lavish set was constructed at Pollachi, Tamil Nadu designed by A. S. Prakash to shoot third schedule at a Pollachi village.^[34][35] A high-octane interval episode featuring Srinivas, Hegde was shot in this schedule, which ended on 12 September 2017.^[36][37] With this forty percentage of the film shoot was over.^[38]

The filming resumed at Varanasi on 21 September 2017, where the team shot action sequences. Few scenes were also shot at Tulsi Ghat, Varanasi and at the temple.^[39] Varanasi schedule was wrapped on 3 October.^[40] A 15-day schedule was begun on mid October 2017 at Hampi and Hospet, Karnataka, where the team shot action sequences choreographed by Peter Hein.^[41] On 6 November 2017, the schedule was wrapped at Hospet near Bellary, Karnataka featuring Srinivas, Hegde and 200 other artists.^[42]

In December 2017, the production moved to Dubai to shoot introductory song and few crucial scenes.^[43] Some scenes featuring Pooja Hegde, Jayaprakash, Pavithra Lokesh and Vennela Kishore was shot in this schedule.^[44] In early January 2018, Srinivas revealed that "seventy-five percent of the film’s shoot is done. Except for three songs and climax episode, entire shoot part is completed. We are planning to kick-start the climax shoot from this month end and have later planned a New York schedule to shoot three songs."^[45]

The filming of the climax scenes began in February 2018. Action director Peter Hein choreographed few climax sequences that took place on a huge set in Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad.^[46]

Final schedule of the film was shot at USA, with Sreenivas, Pooja Hegde and Vennela Kishore in April 2018.^[47] The 15-day USA schedule was done at locations New York City, the Grand Canyon and New Jersey.^[48][49] "We are going to explore some exotic locales in US which haven’t been shown before in Telugu films. It is going to be a visual feast"^[50] A song featuring and Hegde shot in this schedule.^[51] In late April 2018, a 15 minutes dance sequence featuring Sreenivas and Hegde was shot on a busy street at New York City.^[52] Hegde practised for hours to get her moves right.^[53] Principal photography wrapped by late-April 2018, with filming having lasted 160 working days.^[54]

"We couldn't have shot in Hyderabad what should be shot in Kaasi. I can't cheat the audience. The media started talking about the making values right after the teaser was out", Abhishek Nama on making of the film.^[55]

Post-production of the film began simultaneously with the wrapping-up and continuation of film production.^[56] Pete Draper and Alan Badger Brayshaw served as the visual effects supervisor of the film, along with Makuta VFX,^[57] Pixelloid, Work Flow Studios, Knack Studios and the EFX, the film's principal visual effects studio. Over 400 technically skilled artists worked for the film.^[58] Extensive visual effects work took place several months during the post-production process.^[59][60] Hari Haran and Sachin Sudhakaran worked on sound design and IGENE handled digital intermediate. Ranga did the colouring for the film.^[61][62]

The final copy of the film was ready by late July 2018, and was submitted to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) that month.^[63] According to the reports, the censor board was not willing to certify the film as they reportedly believed that many birds and animals were hurt during the shooting of the film. The producers clarified that no birds or animals were hurt during the making of the film and everything has been shot in CGI.^[64][65] Later, on 24 July 2018, the film received a U/A certificate from the Censor Board, with a finalised runtime of 164 minutes.^[66][67]

The soundtrack of this film is composed by Harshavardhan Rameshwar. All the lyrics are written by Ananta Sriram.^[68] The music released on Junglee Music.^[69] The complete audio was released on 7 July 2018 in Hyderabad.^[70]

The soundtrack consists of five songs, namely, "Design Your Destiny, "Ishq Karle", "Soundarya Lahari", "Dung Dung Dung Dung", "Shivam Shivam", "Cheliya Choode", "Bhava Maaya", "Thatra Gandhavathi Pruthvi", "Om Agnirwa Apa", "Sapdha Gunakam" and "Gange Jayamu".^[71] The songs were trending on all FM stations and charts.^[72]

The title logo of the film was revealed on 18 October 2017, through a forty five second motion poster, coinciding Diwali.^[73] The motion poster showcases the five elements (Panchamahabhuta) – Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Aether, inside a giant eye.^[74] The motion poster launch event was held on the same day in Hyderabad, with the film's cast and crew present at the event.^[75] The first look of the film featuring Srinivas and Hegde was released on 14 February 2018, coinciding Valentine's Day.^[76] Later, on 18 April 2018 the film's official teaser trailer was released, which received good response.^[77][78] The film's theatrical trailer was released at audio launch event on 7 July 2018 and later on social medias.^[79][80]

Saakshyam was theatrically released on 27 July 2018.^[81] The film was released by Eros International globally.^[82][83] Red Heart Movies released the film in North America.^[84] Dil Raju acquired the distribution rights of the film in Nizam (Telangana) region.^[85]

The film's digital rights were acquired by ZEE5 and Zee Network acquired the satellite rights of the Telugu version. The deal of satellite rights was reported to be ₹13.5 crore (US$1.6 million).^[86] The original Telugu-language version of the film was premiered on television on 23 September 2018 on Zee Telugu.^[87] The film premiered on ZEE5 on 27 December 2018.^[88]

The Hindi dubbed version titled Pralay: The Destroyer premiered on Zee Cinema on 15 November 2020.^[89] The film was later telecasted on & Pictures on 18 March 2022.^[90] The film was later dubbed and released in Tamil in 2022.

Saakshyam received mixed reviews from critics with praise for the VFX, dialogue, direction, lead casts performances, concept, music, background score and action sequences while criticism was directed towards the screenplay.

123 Telugu rated the film 3 out of 5 and wrote, "On the whole, Saakshyam is a regular action entertainer with an interesting theme. As long as the superb fights and mass elements take center stage, things look good. The mass audience will surely love the film as it has been packed with good episodes which will keep them entertained."^[91]

Murali Krishna C H of The New Indian Express wrote "Bellamkonda achieves believability with a graceful, restrained performance. Pooja Hegde gets more screen time in this film compared to her last outing DJ and she does a good job. Jagapati Babu makes a menacing Munuswamy and he is aided well by Ravi Kishan and Ashutosh Rana."^[92]

In his review, Krishna Sripada of The News Minute wrote "Sriwass’ fantasy tale tells the story of how Vishwa, whose entire family was wiped out in a violent massacre, gets his revenge".^[93]

Vyas of The Hans India reviewed the film and wrote "The major highlight of the film is definitely the striking visuals by the cinematographer. The first half has a lot of comedy, a romance which entertains the audience. The second half lacks a bit of pace and embedded a lot of action sequences. Though the second half is a little bit boring when compared the first half, the spectacular visuals and backgrounds engage the viewers well."^[94]

Varaprasad Makireddy of Samayam Telugu opined "The movie is definitely new. If not, it would have been better if it had been shown better. All in all the theater goer is satisfied. If you enjoy the movie without looking for logic, you will definitely like it."^[95] Jeevi of Idlebrain.com write "Saakshyam is a large canvas film with a different concept and an innovative use of Karma and nature’s elements. The movie starts off really well with high energy killing sequence and hero riding on calf."^[96]

Saakshyam has grossed ₹22.7 crore (US$2.7 million) in its theatrical run.^[2] The film was success at the box office.^[3]

• Saakshyam at IMDb