Atithi

Atithi may refer to:

Atithi (2002 film)

Atithi (Kannada: ಅತಿಥಿ, English: The Guest) is a 2002 Indian Kannada language film directed by P. Sheshadri. The film deals with terrorism and the psychology of the terrorist.

At the 49th National Film Awards, the film was awarded the Best Feature Film in Kannada.

Plot summary

In May 2000, I made my first film MUNNUDI (A Preface) in which I tried to examine the clash between the true religious tenets and demeaning customs. This was produced as a co-operative venture by a team of actors and technicians physically involved in the project. The overwhelming appreciation, two National Awards, Six Karnataka State Awards, entry in International Film Festivals of India, Kerala, Mumbai, Flanders (Belgium), Palm Springs (USA), and decent financial returns gave us confidence about the viability of such ventures as long as we are committed to meaningful cinema. This second film ATITHI comes now on similar co-operative basis.

'Terrorism' is the most talked about word these days. Every one is affected by it in some way or the other- directly or indirectly. Naturally, I was also drawn into debates & discussions on this. All of us thought there is a need to address such an issue in the film medium. A question arose. Can a terrorist be reformed or humanized? Yes, No, Not fully were the answers. There were forceful arguments in support of all these three answers. We did some literature survey. It confused us even more. Then came a thought. Why not we see a terrorist as a human being first and then examine his mental make-up that puts him into terrorist action. Suppose he is drawn away from his 'terrorist' ambiance and placed in a more conducive 'human' ambiance, how would he act? ATITHI took shape in this thinking process.

Athidhi (film)

Athidhi or Atithi (English: Guest) is a 2007 Telugu action thriller film starring Mahesh Babu and Amrita Rao, directed by Surender Reddy and produced by G. Ramesh Babu, brother of Mahesh Babu, under their banner Krishna Pictures Private Limited. It was released on 18 October 2007. It was dubbed into Tamil as Thani Kaattu Raja, and into Hindi as International Khiladi:The Iron Man. Athidi was released with 500 prints in 820 theaters all over the world.Athidi collected a share of ₹28 crore (US$4.1 million) in its lifetime.Athidi finished 35 days in 400 centres successfully. It grossed ₹35 crore (US$5.2 million) in four weeks. It is being remade in Bengali as Royal with Hiran and Sayantika Banerjee.

Trivia

Atithi, an orphan, is implicated in a murder and sent to jail for 13 years. Once out, it becomes his mission to trace and kill Kaiser, the boy who had murdered Amrita's parents. The romantic element comes in the form of Amrita who is an art student in Delhi. Though the twosome meet in Delhi, the story moves to Hyderabad and it is here the rest of the story unravels.