Renowned author William Shakespeare once famously asked 'What's in a name?' But people, especially filmmakers and movie lovers say everything is in the name. Some even are warning that their sentiments will get hurt with a particular title. They are advising makers to consider everything before naming a film.
Of late many films titles ran into problems and the makers of Varun Tej's Valmiki were forced to change their title to Gaddalakonda Ganesh at the last minute. This is not the first time and will not be the last time where a film's title ran into controversy.
Movie lovers decide whether or not to see the film going by the title. That is the reason why the makers right from the olden days used to pay due attention to film's title. Vijay Productions used to be extremely careful about their films titles. They attracted with the titles Patala Bhairavi, Mayabazar, Missamma, Jagadeka Veeruni Katha and even lengthy titles like Uma Chandi Gowri Sankarula Katha, Sri Rajeswari Vilas Coffee Club.
But all the time, movie lovers and the makers views may not sync. Sometimes censor board too may object. C Pullaiah started NTR, Devika's Gollabhama. The film was even publicized but the makers faced opposition.
Even NTR was forced to acknowledge the peoples sentiment and Gollabhama was changed to Bhama Vijayam. Sometime back Varun Tej-Srikanth Addala planned to name their film Gollabhama. However due to opposition, the title was changed to Mukunda.
Even titles regarding Ramayana ran into trouble. Few like Ramude Ravanudaite did not face much opposition. However VSR Swamy's production house's film Kaliyuga Seetha with Jayasudha in lead faced objection from the censor board. Producer changed the film's title to Kaliyuga Stree.
Even Super Star Krishna's dual role's ‘Ramarajyamlo Raktapatam' faced objection from the censor board. The makers changed the title to Ramarajyamlo Raktapatama? Naresh, Seetha's Polisodi Pellam, a Kannada remake under Relangi Narasimha Rao direction faced objection from Police association. Later the film was changed to Police Bharya.
Vijay's film Theri was first titled as Polisodu. But after facing opposition from police associations, the title was changed to Police. Balakrishna's film with Raghavendra Rao was titled as Samrat and at the same time Krishna's son Ramesh Babu's debut film, which was a remake of Bollywood hit Betab starring Sunny Deol was titled as Samrat. Fans of Balakrishna and Krishna fought over the title. However Raghavendra Rao changed the film's title as Sahasa Samrat.
Rahman, Tulasi's film by Jandhyala was titled Rasaleela. However the makers were forced to change the film to Ragaleela due to objection from the censor board. The title did not go down well with the movie lovers and the film failed at the box office. A similar film with similar story came titled Chilakkottudu from EVV Satyanarayana. Venkatesh too came with Prema with similar storyline.
Dasari Narayana Rao planned to film the novel Telugu Natakam penned by Kallakuri Narayana Rao. However facing trouble over the characterization of Subbi Setti role, he shelved the project.
Ram Gopal Varma was forced to change his adult content film Savitri to Sridevi and this too faced opposition. The film got shelved due to controversy with Boney Kapoor and Sridevi slapping notices to RGV.
Mahesh Babu-Trivikram's Khaleja was changed to Mahesh's Khaleja and as Raviteja did not get Autograph title, it was named as My Autograph Sweet Memories. Naga Babu's Dadar Express revolving around a real life rape incident was changed to Super Express following objection from the censor board. Rajasekhar did not get Om title for the remake of Kannada film Om. The film was released as Omkaram.
Pawan Kalyan's Komaram Puli was changed to Puli and RGV's Bezawada Rowdeelu was changed to Bezawada.