Chandralekha

Chandralekha is a 1998 Indian Telugu-language comedy drama film directed by Krishna Vamsi. It stars Nagarjuna Akkineni, Ramya Krishna and Isha Koppikar, with music composed by Sandeep Chowta. The film was produced by Nagarjuna and V. Ram Prasad under Great India Enterprises banner. It is a remake of the 1997 Malayalam film Chandralekha, directed by Priyadarshan. It is the second combination of Nagarjuna, Krishna Vamsi, and Sandeep Chowtha after Ninne Pelladata (1996). Hindi actor Sanjay Dutt made a special appearance for the first time in a Telugu film. The film was not commercially successful. Plot Sitarama Rao alias Seeta is a struggling unemployed youth who arrives in Hyderabad to meet his sister (Jhansi) and brother-in-law, his father has been falsely implicated in a bank fraud and wants to sell his ancestral property to pay towards the litigation, for that he needs his sister's approval, but is rebuked and banished by his brother-in-law. Disillusioned, Seeta seeks out his old school mate Tirupathi, who is working in a fruit juice vending shop in Hyderabad. Tirupathi himself is a hapless uneducated youth working for his uncle, who is a treacherous money lender, with a hope to marry his daughter Bangari. They plan to open a cool drink shop, but need 1.25 lakh Rupees to rent a shop as a prerequisite to getting a bank loan. With no other way in sight, the two of them swindle Tirupathi's uncle out of 1.25 lakh Rupees. Seeta then tries to get the loan sanctioned, but he is rebuffed by a new bank manager, who had taken charge by then. In a new development, Seeta happens to rescue a woman called Chandrika Varma or 'Chandra' after a car accident, hospitalizing her. Chandra is the daughter of a wealthy businessman Varma. Seetarama Rao is mistaken by the hospital staff to be her husband Raj Kapoor. Soon her relatives including her father arrive and they too mistake him as Raj Kapoor because no one had ever seen or talked to him. Also, it happened that Chandra was a major client of Seetarama Rao's bank manager, who too mistook him for Chandra's husband, and was now eager to please him. Seetarama Rao, who is good at heart, initially intended to reveal the truth to everyone but later decides to masquerade as Raj Kapoor till he receives loan approval from the Bank Manager. Chandra lay bedridden, paralyzed, unable to react but was able to witness all the commotion around her.