Karthikeya (film)
Karthikeya is a 2014 Indian Telugu-language mystery thriller film written and directed by Chandoo Mondeti. The film features Nikhil Siddhartha, Swati Reddy, Tanikella Bharani, Rao Ramesh, and Jayaprakash in prominent roles. The film was produced by savitru karthikeyan studying in iiitB on Magnus Cine Prime banner. Shekar Chandra composed the film's music while Karthik Ghattamaneni and Karthika Srinivas were its cinematographer and editor respectively. The film revolves around a closed Karthikeya temple in the village of Subrahmanyapuram and showcases the life of a curious medico Karthik who investigates the mystery surrounding the temple. An incident which happened in Talupulamma Temple in Kakinada district of Andhra Pradesh inspired Chandoo Mondeti to pen the story of Karthikeya. The film was launched on 10 June 2013 at Hyderabad and its Principal photography began on 5 July 2013 which lasted until 21 February 2014. It was shot in Visakhapatnam, Araku, and Kumararama temple in Samarlakota in Andhra Pradesh. Nearly half of the film was shot in Tamil Nadu including Kumbakonam. After few postponements, the film released on 24 October 2014 as a Diwali release to positive reviews from critics, and collected more than , on a budget of . At the 62nd Filmfare Awards South, the film was nominated in four categories. At the 4th South Indian International Movie Awards, the film received one win out of four nominations. Following the film's success, a sequel titled, Karthikeya 2, was announced by Mondeti in late 2019 and released on 13 August 2022. Plot
In a village called Subrahmanyapuram, an old temple belonging to Subrahmanya Swami gets closed because of some mysterious deaths, supposedly by a snake bite. Whoever arrives to investigate this matter also gets killed. Karthikeya is a medical student who does not believe in supernatural powers. He analyzes everything using science and logic. He visits Subrahmanyapuram for a medical camp, along with his love interest Valli. Karthikeya gets curious about the closed temple and gathers some information about it to solve the mystery. Karthikeya finds a diary written by a person named Shankar, an Endowments Department (ED) official, who previously researched about the temple and its mystery, but Shankar was killed by a snake bite in the same building where Karthikeya and his friends were currently residing for the camp. Around the same time, the snake tries to kill Karthikeya, but Karthikeya escapes each time, and takes the snake to a herpetologist. The herpetologist reveals that the snake was hypnotized by someone to kill Karthikeya. Karthikeya meets Valli's father, who happens to be a priest at the temple, to find out about the history of the temple. They leave for Tanjavur to find out that the temple is built very uniquely by the great architect Viswakarma and the family heirloom of the king that ruled that area, a diamond was placed at the feet of the Lord in such a way that on Karthika Pournami, the moon's rays fall on the feet of the Lord and the diamond reflects it back with 1000 times more intensity. Karthikeya returns to the village and finds out that Tayattu, a cook/helper in his temporary residence at Subrahmanyapuram, was a part of the gang trying to kill him. Tayattu tries to escape, but is later killed, where Karthikeya goes into the temple at night, which is coincidentally also the night of Karthika Pournami. He finds an ED officer named Prudhvi Raj in the temple and realises that he is the mastermind behind the whole conspiracy. Prudhvi tries to attack Karthikeya, but at the same time, the diamond reflects the moon's rays and the whole village realises that the Lord is still in the temple. Karthikeya, along with his friends, interrogates Prudhvi, who reveals that the temple had attracted some foreigners who had learnt about the diamond in the temple. Prudhvi Raj decides to steal the diamond from the temple by making everyone believe that a curse is laid on the temple in which everyone will die due to the snake bite. He sought Tayattu's help to develop a snake venom shot and had used snake hypnosis to strike fear into the villagers' hearts. Prudhvi Raj is arrested by the police, but later dies in prison due to snake bite. Karthikeya returns to Hyderabad where he completes his graduation and receives his MBBS degree at the convocation, where he leaves for Goa with his friends to investigate about a cave. 