Rebel (2012 film)

Rebel
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Raghava Lawrence
Written by	Raghava Lawrence Darling Swamy (Dialogues)
Produced by	J. Bhagavan J. Pulla Rao
Starring	Prabhas Tamannaah Bhatia Deeksha Seth
Cinematography	Ram Prasad
Edited by	Marthand K. Venkatesh
Music by	Songs: Raghava Lawrence Background score: S. Chinna
Production company	Sri Balaji Cine Media
Distributed by	Sri Venkateswara Creations (Nizam)[1] 7 Seas (overseas) 14 Reels Entertainment (Krishna) N.V. Prasad (ceded)
Release date	28 September 2012 (India)
Running time	164 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Rebel is a 2012 Indian Telugu-language action film written and directed by Raghava Lawrence. Starring Prabhas, Tamannaah Bhatia, and Deeksha Seth, the film is produced by J. Bhaghawan and J. Pulla Rao under the Sri Balaji Cine Media banner.^[2] Lawrence also handled the choreography and composed the music. Released on 28 September 2012, the film was recorded as a commercial failure or a Flop at the box-office and received negative reviews from critics.^[3][4]

Plot[]

Rishi (Prabhas) is the happy-go-lucky son of Bhupathi (Krishnam Raju). Rishi is influenced by his father's ideals and grows up just like him. However, Bhupathi does not want his son to take up violence and sends him to Bangalore for studies and to learn music. There, Rishi falls for an orphan named Deepali (Deeksha Seth) and brings her to his house in the disguise of his old music teacher as he wants his father to be happy that he does not take up the violence.

During the festivals held in their village, Simhadri (Pradeep Rawat) sends 100 thugs to kill Bhupathi and his family, but Rishi eliminates all 100 thugs. Bhupathi's brother Jayram (Mukesh Rishi) joins hands with Simhadri so that they can kill Bhupathi, Bhupathi's wife Lakshmi (Prabha), and Deepali. Simhadri tells Rishi that a local goon helped Jayram kill Bhupathi and his family. Simhadri soon kills himself, and Rishi stabs his dead body multiple times. Some of Bhupathi's bodyguards are still alive, including Raju (Supreeth Reddy). They assist Rishi to get revenge.

Two years later, Rishi discovers that a goon named Stephen was doing illegal business in Hyderabad for a very long time. Rishi also discovers that Robert started working with Stephen right after Bhupathi's murder. Stephen and Robert became powerful underworld dons. Rishi suspects that his uncle's new identity is Robert. He goes to Hyderabad and finds that Stephen and Robert have an assistant named Nanu (Tej Sapru), who works in Bangkok. Nanu's daughter is Nandini (Tamannaah Bhatia). She and Rishi fall in love with each other. Nanu shows his phone to Nandini because she wants to see the pictures of Stephen and Robert. When Rishi sees the pictures, it is confirmed that Rishi's uncle's new identity is Robert. Since Simhadri told Rishi that a local goon helped Robert kill Bhupathi, that goon must have been Stephen. Later, Raju tells Nandini about Rishi's tragic past. Nandini still wants to help Rishi locate Stephen and Robert.

Rishi bribes Nanu's henchmen to stop protecting Nanu. Rishi then tortures Nanu until the latter agrees to lure Stephen and Robert into a trap. It is revealed that Stephen and Robert sent two henchmen to disguise themselves as Stephen and Robert. Nanu's glad that Stephen and Robert fooled Rishi. Rishi realizes that his bodyguards, Raju, and Nandini got kidnapped by the bad guys. Robert tells Rishi that he sent his henchmen to kidnap Rishi's bodyguards, Raju, and Nandini. Rishi gets taken to his old home, and the rest of his bodyguards, including Raju get killed, yet Nandini is alive. Stephen and his henchman brutally beats up Rishi making him faint. Rishi get glimpses of his family and gets up, beats all the henchman, kills Stephen, kills Robert’s son and beats Robert black and blue and shoots him just like how he shot Rishi’s father. In the end, Rishi and Nandini reunite each other.

Cast[]

Production[]

The film was officially launched at Annapurna Studios on 2 December 2010 with Anushka Shetty as the heroine opposite Prabhas. It was also announced that S. Thaman would compose the soundtrack of the film.^[5]

Casting[]

On 2 December 2010, the opening ceremony of the film took place in Hyderabad. At the event, it was announced that J. Bhagawan and J. Pullarao would produce the film, it would be directed by Raghava Lawrence and would star Prabhas and Anushka in lead roles. The main cast was also announced during the event, which included Brahmanandam, Mukesh Rishi, Kelly Dorjee, Sayaji Shinde, Ali, MS Narayana, Chalapathi Rao, Jayaprakash Reddy, Supreet and Jeeva.^[6] In February 2011, it was announced that Deeksha Seth would play the second lead in the film.^[7] The filming was delayed due to various reasons causing Anushka to opt out of the project.^[8] In August 2011, it was announced that Tamannaah had replaced Anushka.^[9][10] In January 2011, it was reported that Krishnam Raju would play a vital role in the film.^[11] It was later confirmed that he would be portraying a father character while popular Telugu actress Prabha would play the role of a mother.^[12]

Filming[]

After much delays, regular filming began on 21 May 2011.^[13] In the fifty days of working schedule, one action episode and a song were filmed. In October 2011, it was reported that the filming would take place in Bangkok, where action sequences would be shot.^[14] In December 2011, it was reported that the unit would go back to Bangkok to shoot some vital scenes and action sequences with Tamannah and Prabhas.^[15] After completing the Bangkok schedule, filming resumed at Shamshabad Temple near Hyderabad.^[16] It was reported that a special set worth ₹20 million was built at Shamshabad and filming took place in it with 100 fighters and over 1000 extras participating in the schedule.^[17] In March 2012, it was reported that another set had been built at Ramoji Film City, where the climax scenes with 30 Russian fighters were shot.^[18]

In June 2012, the unit went back to Bangkok for the third time to shoot two songs of the movie.^[19] After completing the schedule, the filming resumed at Pollachi where scenes on Prabhas and other lead cast were canned.^[20] The filming shifted to Pondicherry where action episodes involving Prabhas were shot.^[21] The last schedule of filming took at an aluminium factory in Hyderabad.^[22]

Release[]

The film was postponed several times due to delays in post-production works. After much delay, the film was released worldwide on 28 September 2012 in over 950 screens worldwide.

Pre-release revenues[]

It was announced that 7 Seas, a premier entertainment company, purchased the overseas theatrical distribution rights of the film.^[23] The theatrical distribution rights for the Nizam region were bought by Dil Raju for ₹90 million.^[24] The rights for Vizag region were sold to Bellamkonda Suresh for ₹30.6 million.^[25] Distribution rights for ceded region were bought by NV Prasad and Bellary Sai for ₹57.5 million.^[26] Tamil Nadu theatrical distribution rights were sold for ₹3.3 million.^[27] The film made excellent business all over and is up amongst the best films in terms of pre-release revenues.^[28]

Critical response[]

Sashidhar from The Times of India stated, "The film belongs to hard-core Prabhas fans as the movie is stylish and visually rich but not much in content".^[29] Purnima Ranawat from NDTV said, "Rebel serves up fare for the mass audience. The film will be definitely liked by Prabhas' fans. Watch it for the dancing talent of Tamannaah Bhatia and action skills of Prabhas."^[30] Radhika Rajamani from Rediff.com gave the movie one and half stars out of five and said, "Working with hardly any storyline, director Raghava Lawrence had made a film that is arduous to watch... Rebel is a movie for the masses and certainly not for the discerning audience."^[31]

Jeevi from Idlebrain.com gave the film a 3 out of 5 rating and stated, "Rebel is an revenge-based action film. Prabhas is known as one of the best mass stars of Telugu cinema. Lawrence's movies are known to appeal to the raw senses of mass movie lovers. Rebel is no exception. Interval block is really good. Rebel has decent commercial elements and targeted at masses. Masses will like it.^[32] A reviewer from OneIndia.com called the film "A treat for Prabhas fans" and gave it a 3 out of 5 rating.^[33]

Box office[]

The film collected ₹23.22 crore worldwide in its first weekend^[34] and ₹24.37 crore in its first week in India.^[35] It collected approximately ₹33.35 crore in its first week worldwide.^[36]

Home media[]

The VCDs,^[37] DVDs^[38][39] and Blu-rays^[40] of the film were released on 22 January 2013 through Sri Balaji Video company.

Remake[]

The film was remade into Dhallywood as Hero: The Superstar starring Shakib Khan, Apu Biswas and Bobby.

Soundtrack[]

Rebel
Soundtrack album by Raghava Lawrence
Released	14 September 2012 (2012-09-14)
Recorded	2012
Genre	Film soundtrack
Length	21:53
Language	Telugu
Label	Aditya Music
Producer	Raghava Lawrence
Raghava Lawrence chronology
Don (2007) Rebel (2012)

Initially S. Thaman was revealed to be the composer but he opted out of the film; instead, Raghava Lawrence himself composed the songs while the film score was composed by S. Chinna.^[41] The soundtrack of the film was released through Aditya Music label on 14 September 2012 at Shilpakala Vedika in Hyderabad.^[42] The album consists of five songs. The lyrics for four songs were penned by Ramajogayya Sastry and one song was written by Bhaskarabhatla.

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Keka"	Ramajogayya Sastry	Benny Dayal, Lloyd Paul, Sathyan, Naresh Iyer	4:09
2.	"Deepali"	Ramajogayya Sastry	Karthik, Priya Hemesh, Diya (Child) & Group	4:35
3.	"Google"	Bhaskarabhatla Ravi Kumar	Andrea, Shravana Bhargavi & Group	4:40
4.	"Orinayano"	Ramajogayya Sastry	Malathi, Vijay Prakash & Group	5:09
5.	"Excellent Nee Figure (Remix)"	Ramajogayya Sastry	Benny Dayal, Lloyd Paul, Sathyan, Naresh Iyer	3:20
Total length:				21:53

References[]

External links[]

• Rebel at IMDb