U Turn (2018 film)

U Turn is a 2018 Indian mystery-thriller film written and directed by Pawan Kumar and produced by Srinivasa Chitturi and Rambabu Bandaru under the banners BR8 Creations, V. Y. Combines and Srinivasa Silver Screen. The plot revolves around the death of motorists who break a traffic rule at a particular flyover and subsequent pinning down of the culprit by an intern journalist and police inspector duo. Filmed simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu languages, it is a remake of the director's own 2016 Kannada film of the same name.

U Turn
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPawan Kumar
Produced bySrinivasa Chitturi
Rambabu Bandaru
Written byPawan Kumar
StarringSamantha Akkineni
Aadhi Pinisetty
Rahul Ravindran
Bhumika Chawla
Music byPoornachandra Tejaswi
CinematographyNiketh Bommireddy
Edited bySuresh Arumugam
Production
company
BR8 Creations
V. Y. Combines
Srinivasa Silver Screen
Release date
  • 13 September 2018 (2018-09-13)
Running time
128 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil
Telugu
Box officeest. ₹37 crore[1]

The film stars Samantha Akkineni, Aadhi Pinisetty, Bhumika Chawla, and Rahul Ravindran. Principal photography commenced in February 2018 and ended in June. U-Turn is a songless film, featuring background score composed by Poornachandra Tejaswi and a promotional song composed by Anirudh Ravichander. The cinematography was handled by Niketh Bommireddy and editing by Suresh Arumugam.

The film released on 13 September 2018, coinciding with the Ganesh Chathurthi festival and received a positive response from critics, becoming successful. The film was made available as a VOD at Amazon Prime Video on 25 October 2018.

Plot

Rachana (Samantha Akkineni), an intern, with The Times of India, a daily newspaper, is working on an article on the incidents at a flyover. She also has a crush on the crime reporter Aditya, whose help she seeks for research material on accidents on the flyover. She finds that each day some motorists move the concrete blocks that partition the road just to take a quick U-turn and avoid the traffic. They don’t move them back and the blocks are left to lie randomly on the road leading to many accidents. A homeless man sitting on the flyover notes down the vehicle numbers of commuters who violate the rule to take the U-turn and gives the list to Rachana. She obtains the details of the culprits using her contact in the traffic department, with the intention of confronting them for their "short-cut" and writing an article for the paper. Her attempt to meet the first person on the list goes in vain.

Later the same day, the police take her into custody and accuse her of killing the same person she wanted to meet. She is shocked and tells her side of the story. Though the senior police officer rejects it, sub-inspector Pradeep Nayak finds it believable and does some investigation. It is revealed that all the persons Rachana has on her list have committed suicide. They also noticed that they have committed suicide the same day they took the wrong "u-turn". Rachana and Nayak find another number has been noted by the homeless man which is to be delivered to Rachana the next day. The duo trace the address and try to rescue the man, a lawyer, who has taken the u-turn on the same day. As nothing seems suspicious, both leave only to encounter the very death of the lawyer whom they came to rescue,who jumps off his balcony and died falling on the police car in which Nayak and Rachana were leaving.

Later Rachana tries to confront the homeless man for the injuries in the fly-over. Meanwhile, she sees two young men violate the U-Turn and reports it to Nayak, who first disagrees and didn't believe her that they would die. Later, he locks them up in an old Police lock-up and sees them with CCTV cameras to save them. But one of them who behaves like a ghost possessed him, fights with the other, who dies. The former steals a gun of Nayak and shoots himself.Rachana interviews Ritesh about accidents on the flyover. Ritesh tells about his wife Maya and their daughter Aarna who both died in an accident on the flyover. He tells that he should find who is responsible for Maya and his daughter's death.


Aditya gives a article of news with incidents on the flyover. Meanwhile, the Senior Inspector Chandrashekhar suspends Nayak till the investigation overs as the two men died in front of polic Racinterviews Ritesh about accidents on the flyover. Ritesh tells about his wife Maya and their daughter Aarna who both died in an accident on the flyover. He tells that he should find who is responsible for Maya and his daughter's death.

With no way of finding the real cause of the death of the culprits, Rachana herself takes the wrong u-turn and waits for something to happen Rachana dreams of Maya and her daughter Aarna died in an accident due to the concrete roadblocks that were moved by the culprits in order to make way for the U-turn. In her house, Maya and Aarna are there and says she is the reason for their death. Using her supernatural powers, Maya tries to kill Rachana as well. But Rachana promises to find the person who was responsible for Maya's death. Maya gives her a chance to find the culprites. Rachana wakes up and goes to Nayak's home and finds some pictures of the people who died by the U- turn. With the help of Nayak, she tries to find the person who moved the blocks on the day of Maya's accident. They found out the phone number and address of the guy who moved the block. Rachana writes this on a balloon and leaves it on the flyover for Maya to find. Rachana calls and finds the number to be Aditya's brother's mobile number but he shifted to US 2 years back and Aditya is using the number and his bike. Devastated, she tells Aditya and informs him that due to his negligence a mother and daughter lost their lives. Aditya says it was not him who made the U-turn. He merely exchanged his bike with his friend. In the final twist, it is revealed that the guy who moved the block was Maya's own husband Ritesh. Maya's ghost is waiting in Aditya's house to kill him when Maya's husband whom Rachana has informed about the incident . They saves Aditya while Ritesh sees and says to Maya that because of him they lost their lives. He then tries to commit suicide by jumping from the balcony. Maya's ghost saves him and tells him that his punishment is to suffer in this world without his wife and daughter.

Cast

Production

U Turn is a remake of the 2016 Kannada film of the same name. It was filmed simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu languages, to bank on the popularity of lead actress Samantha Akkineni in the Tamil and Telugu film industries.[3] Pawan Kumar, who directed the original, returned to direct the bilingual remake,[4] marking his debut in Tamil and Telugu.[5] He also made the last 30 minutes different from the Kannada original.[6] The remake was produced by Srinivasa Chitturi and Rambabu Bandaru under the banners BR8 Creations, V. Y. Combines and Srinivasa Silver Screen.[7][8] Cinematography was handled by Niketh Bommireddy,[9] and editing by Suresh Arumugam.[8] Filming began in February 2018 at Rajahmundry,[10] and ended in June.[11]

Soundtrack

U Turn is a songless film. The film features background score composed by Poornachandra Tejaswi[9] and a promotional song composed by Anirudh Ravichander, which was not included in the film itself.[12][13] The song "The Karma Theme" which was sung by Anirudh Ravichander with Alisha Thomas on backing vocals, was released on 5 September 2018 as a promotional song for the film, and a promotional video song was released on the same day. Directed by Krishna Marimuthu, with cinematography handled by Niketh Bommireddy the music video, features Samantha and Anirudh making onscreen appearances in the video.[14][15] The song was released in both Tamil and Telugu languages and turned out to become an instant hit from listeners.[16]

Tamil tracklist
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."The Karma Theme"SubuAnirudh Ravichander3:34
Telugu tracklist
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."The Karma Theme"Sri Sai KiranAnirudh Ravichander3:34

Release

U Turn was released on 13 September 2018,[4] during Ganesh Chaturthi.[17] Thinkal Menon of The Times of India rated the Tamil version 3 out of 5, writing "An interesting remake with enough twists and turns, and a climax that could have been more convincing."[2]

Box office

The film collected approximately ₹3.60 crore (US$500,000) worldwide in four days. The film collected approximately ₹3.60 crore (US$500,000) in Tamil Nadu is the 4 days gross of its opening weekend and ₹5.95 crore (US$830,000) in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in first weekend and The film collected approximately ₹1.58 crore (US$220,000) in United States, ₹16.50 lakh (US$23,000) in Australia and ₹25 lakh (US$35,000) in international box office. The film collected ₹2 crore (US$280,000) in overseas in first weekend. The film approximately collected ₹12 crore (US$1.7 million) worldwide in first weekend.[18]

References
  1. "Tollywood box office report of 2018: highest grossing Telugu movies of year; List of hits and flops". 23 November 2018.
  2. Menon, Thinkal (13 September 2018). "U Turn Movie Review". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  3. Manoj Kumar, R. (11 September 2018). "Samantha Akkineni: U Turn will keep you on the edge of your seat". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 11 September 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  4. Aiyappan, Ashameera (22 July 2018). "Samantha Akkineni's U-Turn to release on September 13". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 23 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  5. Sharadhaa, A (24 January 2017). "Pawan Kumar to direct Samantha". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  6. "Samantha: "Content is the star of U-Turn"". Sify. 1 September 2018. Archived from the original on 1 September 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  7. "Films of Naga Chaitanya and Samantha to release on the same day". The Times of India. 28 August 2018. Archived from the original on 1 September 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  8. "Samantha 'U Turn' First Look". Idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  9. "Samantha ready for 'U Turn'". The Hindu. 24 July 2018. Archived from the original on 18 August 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  10. Paul, Papri (18 February 2018). "Samantha starts shooting for 'U-Turn' remake". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  11. Nyayapati, Neeshita (28 June 2018). "Samantha wraps up shoot for her Telugu-Tamil bilingual 'U Turn'". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 1 September 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  12. Rajendran, Gopinath (22 August 2018). "Anirudh gets in front of the camera for U Turn". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 1 September 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  13. "Samantha Akkineni admits to gossiping about Pawan Kumar with Rahul Ravindran". India Today. 1 September 2018. Archived from the original on 1 September 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  14. Sundar, Priyanka (3 September 2018). "Samantha Akkineni and Anirudh's U Turn song is trippy, liberating. Watch video". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  15. "Samantha dances to peppy U Turn song by Anirudh Ravichander". India Today. 3 September 2018. Archived from the original on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  16. Nyayapati, Neeshita (3 September 2018). "Samantha and Anirudh Ravichander's 'The Karma Theme' from 'U Turn' is deliciously trippy!". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  17. "Samantha's 'U Turn' to release on Vinayaga Chathurthi". The Times of India. 28 August 2018. Archived from the original on 1 September 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  18. "U Turn 4-day box office collection: Samantha starrer struggles to cross Rs 10 crore mark in weekend 1". International Business Times. 17 September 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
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