This film's budget was less than an iPhone, smashed box office records; became first industry hit, earned...

A film is considered a success when it collected twice more than its budget at the box office. Today, the benchmarks for film’s success is as high as their budgets. However, there was a time when films were made on a budget less than the cost of an iPhone. 

One such film which was made on a budget ranging from a few thousand, became the industry’s first hit and collected twice more than its budget at the box office. The film we are talking about is none other than the 1993 Telugu hit Savitri. Savitri is a mythological film directed by C. Pullayya. The film was based on a popular stage play Myalvaram Bala Bharati Samajam and was the first film produced by East India Film Company. 

Made for just Rs 75000, the film’s story revolved around Savitri and Satyavan from Mahabharata. The film starred Ramatilakam, Nidumukkala Subbarao, Govindaraju Venkara Ramayya, and Vemuri Gaggaya in key roles. The film emerged to be a huge hit and became the first industry hit. It collected over Rs 2 lakh in distributor share and became the first Telugu hit. The story was mythological and at that time thousands of people broke down in theaters to see it. Today, Telugu films like Pushpa, Baahubali, Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, and others have set a huge benchmark by collecting over Rs 100 cores at the box office.

Not only this, the film was also screened at international film festivals and received an honorary diploma at the 2nd Venice International Film Festival. The film turned the destiny of stage actor Vemuri Gaggaya. The film was Vemuri Gaggaya’s debut and with this film, he became the first actor to get start status that too playing a negative role. He therefore went on to star in several other films and his last film was Bhaktha Siriyala in 1948. Since then, Telugu film has flourished in every sense and has given several hits like Baahubali, Pushpa and more and many superstars like Allu Arjun, Mahesh Babu, Ram Charan, etc. 

The DNA app is now available for download on the Google Play Store. Please download the app and share your feedback with us.