Happy Days tells us a story that explores the lives of eight friends through the four years of their engineering course. Each of them join CBIT with their own set of idiosyncrasies, eccentricities, beliefs and ideals. What starts off as a journey of individuals, slowly becomes a collective one over time. They bond over as they go through bullying seniors, stringent professors, intense examinations, over the top celebrations, love, betrayal, sacrifice and every other possible emotion that an individual can experience in a college. The movie portrays the mindset of a typical engineering student which helped youth to connect with the characters involved.
Sekhar Kammula held a talent search at Big FM and idlebrain.com and managed to select seven of the eight lead actors. He had to cast Tamannaah Bhataia as a suitable actress was not found.[4] The main lead of the film was selected using the internet without any direct audition. Varun Sandesh did not audition for his role. He sent his photograph by e-mail in response to idlebrain.com advertisement and subsequently sent a video clip of himself enacting certain scenes along with a song via Google Video. Damidi Kamalakar Reddy, founding Secretary and Treasurer of Chaitanya Engineering College, acted as a Professor/Lecturer in a brief cameo role.
Filming
Most of the shooting took place at Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT) and Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology (MGIT). In fact, the opening scene between Appu and Rajesh was shot in MGIT with select scenes shot outdoors. Sekhar being an alumnus of CBIT, found it to be a suitable location. He had to arrange a special screening of Anand to the chairman of CBIT and its board members to convince them for an on-site shoot. Apparently, after watching Anand, the board granted their permission to shoot the film.[5]
Cost cutting measures
Sekhar Kammula cut costs of producing the film through various methods. By casting newcomers, he cut expenses to a reasonable level. As most of the shooting took place in the college, there was no need to construct sets. By partnering with Pantaloon Group, he saved another one million rupees in the costumes budget.[6]
Music
The music was composed by Mickey J Meyer and released by Big Music.[7] The audio launch took place at Annapurna Studios on 24 August 2007, 100 students selected from various colleges in Hyderabad attended. The guests for the evening included BN Reddy (CBIT), Kamalakar Reddy (CBIT), Dil Raju, Sekhar Kammula, Ravi Naidu (BIG Music), Mahesh Kumar (Reliance business head), Ilayaraja, Swapna, C Vijaya Kumar, Ashok and the star cast.BN Reddy launched the audio CD and gave the first unit to Kamalakar Reddy.[8]
Happy Days was released on 28 September 2007 in the United States and 2 October 2007 in India. In addition, it was dubbed into Malayalam.
Reception
Critical response
The film received positive reviews for its fresh story, cast, screenplay, and songs. A critic from Rediff.com wrote that "Don't miss Happy Days for you will be reminded of the days gone by. Savour that nostalgia as Sekhar gives you ample amount of it".[10] Jeevi of Idlebrain.com wrote that "If he sticks to his sensibilities, Sekhar Kammula can never make a bad film. Go and watch Happy Days."[11]
Box office
Though the film featured mostly newcomers, it became a commercial hit throughout India. It collected ₹ 10 crores (100million) in 50 days.[12]
In 2014, there were speculations that a Hindi remake of Happy Days would be directed by Sekhar himself, and would be co-produced by Salman Khan.[14][15][16] However, there were no further updates.
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