Credits

Banner: Amigos Creations

Cast: Raja, Kamaline Mukherjee, Anish Kuruvilla, Satya, Baby Bakita, Master Abhijit, Chandana, Gururaj, Bharat, Ali, Patel, Pruthvi, Meenakshi, Gopi

Music: KM Radha Krishnan

Lyrics: Veturi

Camera: Vijay C Kumar

Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh

Choreography: Nixon & Sekhar Kammula

Art: Kishore Chowksi

Production Manager: Arvind Kumar

Story - Dialogues - Screenplay - Direction: Sekhar Kammula

Executive Producer and Chief Assistant Director: Anish Kuruvilla

Producer: Amigos Creations & NFDC

Theatrical release date: 15th October 2004

Interesting Facts:

He made the movie Dollar Dreams but didnt know how to promote it. Made with 16 lakhs he suffered 4-5 lakhs loss on the movie but won Best Debut Director. It took him 3 years to start looking for opportunities again
Then he started thinking about his next film. He wrote a script and made about 25-30 people listen to it. Gram phone tirguthundi, Manasuna mallela maalaloogene is playing and Andam ayina ammayi baita vaana ani Katha cheppadam modhiletadu. But nobody showed interest. Anish Kuruvulla told him stop with the gram phone and Sekhar asked everybody he met to read one page of the script but they didnt want to. Finally he decided to self produce
Budget was going to be 80 lakhs and despite funding from friends, Sekhar coudln't afford it.
Sekhar wrote the story keeping Pawan Kalyan in mind, and he tried as well but it didnt happen. Casting sangathi, they went for Raja who had done a bunch of movies most notably Arjun at that time but didnt get a solid break. He had done acting course in Florida. He is also a method actor. We cast all non-established actors as character artists in Anand. The process took 3 months.
Casting heroine was very tough task. We went to Mumbai and Bangalore and could not get the appropriate one. Since the story revolves around her they tried for popular heroines like Asia and Sara but didnt happen. Finally they watched a Ayush shampoo AD on TV and in that there was a Bengali girl named Kamalinee Mukherjee. She had done theater arts and was doing modeling. She was acting in Phir Milenge Salman Khan movie at the time and didnt have any interest in South movies.

KM Radhakrishna was selected as the music director 2nd Telugu movie for him and he composed the songs in Necklace Road and in college campus, cinematographer and editor Vijay C Kumar rand Marthamd K Venkatesh who worked for Dollar Dreams were selected again. Sekhar loved Veturi’s lyrics and all the songs were written by him.

Since no buyers came forward, Sekhar tied up with a distribution company and went for own release everywhere. And it clashed with the biggest movie of the year Shankar Dada MBBS. Talk of the industry was Sekhar’s guts to go up against Megastar of all people.
Movie started with limited release with just 5 prints in Hyderabad, Warangal, Vijaywada, and Vizag lo release ayyindi. Seeing first week collections Sekhar had no hopes but then something happened, suddenly the talk picked up and ee manchi coffee lanti cinema janalni aakatukundi. The fresh feel, simple and natural dialogues and melodies songs spun magic on the audience. Prints were increased to 23 and then with hit talk buyers came forward. Sekhar kept Nizam rights and sold the rest
Ran for 130 days in Hyderabad and then on January 28th, 2005 movie completed 100 days and had a function. Dasari Narayana Rao was chief guest and Bapu garu also complimented Sekhar.
Overall it was a success at the box office and made Sekhar Kammula a notable director. Breakthrough for the entire cast and crew except Anish Kuruvilla who would have to wait 12 years more to get a break in Pellichoopulu. He also directed a film called Avakai Biryani in 2008 starring Kamal Kamaraju and Bindhu Madhavi which did not work at the box office. He also directed Ko Ante Koti starring Shawanand and Srihari