Maro Charitra (1978 film)

Maro Charitra is a 1978 Telugulanguage Indian romantic tragedy film written and directed by K. Balachander. It stars Kamal Haasan and Saritha in the lead with Madhavi and Sarath Babu appearing in prominent roles. The film deals with crosscultural romance between a Tamil boy and a Telugu girl. Upon release, it was commercially successful and remains a cult classic. Owing to its success in Andhra Pradesh, the film was released in the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka without being dubbed into the respective languages. Balachander won a Best Director at the Southern Filmfare Awards in 1979. Later in 1981, Balachander remade the film in Hindi as Ek Duuje Ke Liye with Kamal Haasan reprising his role. Saritha, the female lead, was, however, replaced by Punjabi actress Rati Agnihotri. The Hindi remake became a success as well. Both the films were listed among CNNIBNs 100 greatest Indian films of all time in 2013.

Rama Arangannal, who produced Balachanders previous films agreed to produce the film. Balachander decided to launch Kamal as a lead actor in the Telugu film industry upon the latters request. Kamal had entered the Telugu film industry through the directors Anthuleni Katha 1976, albeit playing a supporting role. That was followed by a dubbed version of the Tamil film Manmadha Leelai released during the same period. As both the films had a 100day run at the theatres, Kamal was approached by many Telugu film producers. The actor had to refuse all the offers citing that he wants to be launched as a lead actor through a film directed by Balachander, his mentor. As Kamal is a Tamil, Balachander characterised his role as a Tamil man who falls in love with a Telugu girl and developed the screenplay. Most of Kamals dialogues were in Tamil.The film was made by Balachander with the sole intention of introducing Kamal Haasan as a lead actor in Telugu cinema. Having chosen the male lead, Balachander was on a look out for a female counterpart. As the film deals with crosscultural romance, he decided to cast a new actor to play the female lead. To choose the character, he auditioned a number of girls and finally ended up choosing a darkskinned girl with big eyes named Abhilasha, who was in tenth grade. Though the members of the production unit were unsatisfied with her dark complexion and for being fat. Balachander went ahead in finalising her for the role as he felt she had a homely look and was of the right age to fit in the role. Later, she was rechristened Saritha by Balachander himself. In a 2005 interview with The Hindu, she said that she was the 162nd girl to be auditioned for the film, while also noting that she did not even look good in the photographs that was sent to Balachander. Besides the lead actors, Madhavi who made an impact with Thoorpu Padamara was signed up to play an important role in the film. The film was shot in Visakhap

Source: Wikipedia