Vyjayanthi Movies is an Indian film production company established in 1974 by C. Aswani Dutt. It is one of the biggest film studios in Indian cinema producing prominently Telugu cinema.[1] Vyjayanthi Movies is especially known for its big-budget productions with top movie stars.[2] It is credited with producing some of the most iconic films in the industry.[3]
Its subsidiaries, Swapna Cinema and Three Angels Studio, are run by Aswani Dutt's daughters, Swapna Dutt and Priyanka Dutt.
History
Founding
Original Logo of Vyjayanthi Movies
Aswani Dutt started his film career as an executive producer for a black and white film directed by K. Viswanath.[4] He wanted to produce a film with his favourite actor N. T. Rama Rao (NTR) and approached him.[5] Named by NTR, Vyjayanthi Movies commenced production, under the proprietorship of Aswani Dutt with the successful film, Eduruleni Manishi in 1975.[2] The logo of the production house contains the image of NTR as Lord Sri Krishna, with a Sankha in his hand and Earth behind him.
Vyjayanthi Movies had a successful run until it hit a rough patch with Sakthi in 2011. After this, Aswani Dutt took a seven-year hiatus. He produced Mahanati in 2018 which became one of the highest grossing films of the year.[7]
Subsidiaries
Swapna Cinema
In 2014, Ashwini Dutt's elder daughter, Swapna Dutt, inherited Swapna Cinema from her father. Under this banner, Swapna and her sister, Priyanka Dutt produced Yevade Subramanyam. This was a big success story at the box office in 2015. In 2018, this banner produced a biopic on the late actress, Savitri. The biopic, titled Mahanati stars Keerthi Suresh, Dulquer Salmaan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, and Vijay Devarakonda. It was critically acclaimed and highly successful at the box office.
Three Angels Studio
Aswani Dutt's younger daughter, Priyanka Dutt launched a new production house named Three Angels Studio in 2008.[8] She produced her first film, Baanam (2009), through this company and introduced Nara Rohit to Telugu Cinema. The film was critically acclaimed, but did not do well at the box office. She then produced the anthology film Om Shanti in 2010. It stars Nikhil Siddhartha, Kajal Aggarwal, Bindu Madhavi and Navdeep.
After the success of Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari (1990), Aswani Dutt wanted to do fantasy film highlighting the CGI. So a film titled Bhooloka Veerudu was started in the direction of Singeetam Srinivasa Rao with Chiranjeevi in the lead role. After completing two schedules, the project was shelved as they realised that they didn't have a proper story in hand and hence shelved the film.[10]
Ram Gopal Varma narrated a story to Aswani Dutt which he liked. Varma was making Daud at that time and felt that the shooting of Daud might be stalled due to Sanjay Dutt's legal issues. So Varma narrated the story to Aswani Dutt and Chiranjeevi which they liked. Aswani Dutt started the project with Chiranjeevi as the lead in the direction of Ram Gopal Varma. After Sanjay Dutt's release, the shooting of Daud resumed. Then Aswani Dutt realised that the storylines for these two films are similar. As he was not comfortable in doing a film which had the same storyline to another film, he stalled the project.[10]
^"Interview with Aswini Dutt by Jeevi". Idlebrain.com. 6 August 2003. Archived from the original on 3 September 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022. Aswini Dutt, the man behind Telugu Cinema's one of the prestigious banners - Vyjayanthi Movies, is a senior most producer of Telugu film industry. He has produced blockbusters with all the stars of Telugu Cinema ranging from NTR to NTR.
^"Interview with Aswini Dutt by Jeevi". Idlebrain.com. 2 July 2002. Archived from the original on 3 September 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022. Aswini Dutt, the man behind Telugu Cinema's one of the prestigious banners - Vyjayanthi Movies, is a senior most producer of Telugu film industry. He has produced blockbusters with all the stars of Telugu Cinema ranging from NTR to Jr. NTR.
