2004 Indian film
Sye (transl. Challenge) () is a 2004 Indian Telugu-language sports action film directed by S. S. Rajamouli from a story by V. Vijayendra Prasad. The story has a rugby union backdrop. Nithin and Genelia D'Souza star while Shashank and Pradeep Rawat play other crucial roles. In the film, two rival groups in a college—Science led by Prudhvi and Arts led by Shashank—fight for superiority through the game of rugby, until a local gangster Bhikshu Yadav takes over their college.
This was Rajamouli's third film after the successes of Student No.1 and Simhadri. It has music composed by M. M. Keeravani with cinematography and editing by K. K. Senthil Kumar and Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao respectively. The film earned ₹11 crore distributors' share (US$2.4 million) against a production budget of ₹10.2 crore (US$2.2 million) and was commercially successful.[a][2] The film won four Nandi Awards. It was loosely remade into Bengali as Jor Jar Muluk Tar (2010).
Plot
Prudhvi (Nithiin) and Shashank (Shashank) are the leaders of two warring student groups in a Hyderabad college. They are fond of the game of rugby, and they sort things out issues between them by playing rugby to prove their superiority.
One day, a local mafia leader Bhikshu Yadav (Pradeep Rawat) gets a court notice that he has purchased the college land from its legal heirs. Prudhvi and Sashank's groups unite and forgetting their mutual differences to win back the college. The students attack the political career of Bhikshu by posting fake posters of him in the streets. They go to his liquor shops and play dead to make it appear that the shops sold spurious poisonous liquor which killed the students. After getting affected by the student assaults, Bhikshu Yadav throws a challenge to defeat his team in a game of rugby union to win back the land for their college. The rest of the story is how Prudhvi leads his team to the victory.[1]
Production
Nithiin and other actors underwent two months of rugby training.[6]
Soundtrack
The film has six songs composed by M. M. Keeravani:[7]
- "Appudappudu" - Lucky Ali, Sumangali - Lyrics: M. M. Keeravani
- "Chantaina Bujjaina" - Kalyani Malik, Smitha, Vasundara Das - Lyrics: Chandrabose
- "Ganga A/C" - Kalyani Malik, Ganga, Vasundara Das - Lyrics: Chandrabose
- "Gutlovundi" - Tippu, Malathi - Lyrics: Bhuvana Chandra
- "Nalla Nallani Kalla" - M. M. Keeravani, K. S. Chithra - Lyrics: Siva Shakti Datta
- "Pantham Pantham" - Devi Sri Prasad, M. M. Keeravani, Tippu, Chandrabose, Kalyani Malik, & Smitha - Lyrics: Chandrabose
Reception
A critic from Sify opined that "Go ahead and enjoy and rugby game. Sye is a roller coaster ride of pure unadulterated masala".[8]
Box office
The film had a successful 365-day run at one center. It collected ₹11 crore share at box office.[9] Sye was the most expensive film in Rajamouli's career till 2004 as it was made with approximately ₹10 crore budget.[9][3][2]
Recognition
In the lead up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, a video of the rugby scenes from Sye went viral.[10]
When Willie Hateraka, belonging to the Maori sect of New Zealand, working as the coach for Indian Army's Rugby team, saw the film Sye, was so impressed with the movie that he recommended Rajamouli's name to the International Rugby Board as the director for their proposed feature film based on Rugby. Hateraka, who couldn't even understand English properly nor the language of the film, connected to the film emotionally. The film went on to be one of the only 3 films that the Rugby Board found suitable as promotional material for the game of Rugby.[11]
