Ashta Chamma

Infobox Film
name = Ashta Chamma


caption = Promotional poster for the film
writer = Mohan Krishna Indraganti
starring = Colours Swathi
Nani
Srinivas Avasarala
Bhargavi
Tanikella Bharani
director = Mohan Krishna Indraganti
producer = Ram Mohan
editing = Marthand K. Venkatesh
distributor =
released = September 5, 2008
runtime =
language = Telugu
budget =
cinematography = P. G. Vinda
music = Kalyani Malik
soundtrack = Kalyani Malik
country = India
awards =
followed_by =
amg_id =
imdb_id =
website =

"Ashta Chamma" 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.

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.cite news|url=http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2008/sep/01slid1.htm|title=Taking on Oscar Wilde!|last=Rajamani|first=Radhika|date=2008-09-01|publisher=Rediff.com|accessdate=2008-09-07] cite news|url=http://www.idlebrain.com/celeb/interview/mohanakrishna2008.html|title=Interview with Mohana Krishna Indraganti|date=2008-07-10|publisher=Idlebrain.com|accessdate=2008-09-09] 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.cite web|url=http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/aug/04look.htm|title=When ludo inspired Mohan Krishna|last=Rajamani|first=Radhika|date=2008-08-04|publisher=Rediff.com|accessdate=2008-09-07] 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.

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.

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. Swati held a good opinion about Indraganti, whom she thought to be quite an educated director.cite web|url=http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2008/sep/04sli2.htm|title=The transformation of Swati|last=Rajamani|first=Radhika|date=2008-09-01|publisher=Rediff.com|accessdate=2008-09-07] 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".

The movie proved to be a very big hit, particularly in the urban areas. All the new actors proved to be very effective in their roles. Particularly, the portrayal of Anand by Srinivas Avasarala has won several accolades.

References