The story is set against the backdrop of Rayalaseema. The film opens with Veera Reddy returning from the US after a long gap with his wife and eight-year-old son, Aadi Kesava Reddy. Veera Reddy's deceased father was a well-known factionist in that area and owned a property of 4,000 acres (16 km2). While leaving for the US, Veera Reddy gave the responsibility of managing this land to Nagi Reddy. Now back in India, Veera Reddy realizes that Nagi Reddy is misusing his power. He wants to donate all his land to the 2000 families staying in that village. When Nagi Reddy learns of this charity giveaway, he attacks Veera Reddy, killing him and his wife. Veeranna, a trusted lieutenant of Veera Reddy, takes the child Aadi and escapes to Hyderabad. After the murders, Veera Reddy's trusted people are sentenced to fourteen years in prison.
Then the film titles roll, ending with the caption '12 years later'. The grown up Aadi is studying in college. He falls in love with Nandu and vice versa. Veeranna has raised Aadi in Hyderabad as a fun-loving boy, but he is also a hot-tempered young man. Later on, it is revealed that Nandu is Nagi Reddy's daughter. Completing her studies, Nandu returns to her hometown at her father's place. After a hiatus of 14 years, Aadi reenters the Rayalaseema along with other trusted members of his father, who are released from jail. Aadi wants to take revenge on Nagi Reddy and get back all the land so that he can distribute it to the villagers. The rest of the film deals with how Aadi achieves his objective.
When Vinayak was assisting director Sagar for the film Padutha Theeyaga, producer Bellamkonda Suresh used to observe him. He promised him that he would give Vinayak an opportunity to prove himself. After Paaduthaa Theeyagaa, he was not doing much as an assistant and thus started working on his own scripts. When Suresh offered to make a film with him, he was thrilled and narrated the story to NTR. NTR liked the subject. It was a love story. But Kodali Nani didn't like it. After a couple of days, he narrated another story that was instantly liked and taken to the sets, and that was the story of Aadi. They went to Mumbai to search for a heroine. They considered Aarti Agarwal, but she had just signed on the dotted line for Nuvvu Naaku Nacchaav. They also considered Ayesha Takia, but their cameraman felt that she wasn't the right choice for NTR. Seeing the Fair & Lovely ad, Vinayak felt Trisha would be an ideal choice, but his sister didn't like her. They dropped that idea, too, with a primary belief that if ladies didn't like much, then it will just not work out. While in Mumbai still, they also met Sada also there, but she'd have been so lean beside NTR, they thought, and we dropped her too. During all this, the shooting was already in progress! Thus, we had to find just someone. That's how it all happened.[2]
Box office
Aadi ran for 50 days in 121 centers and 100 days in a record 96 direct centers.[1]
