Baby Neena Sowcar Janaki as Chancellor Suthi Velu as the Ooty house caretaker Special appearances (listed alphabetically) Chandramohan Disco Shanti in Ragada Ragada/ Vidiya Vidiya Nadanam Silk Smitha in item number Production Fascinated by the script and box office performance of Mani Ratnam's Mouna Ragam (1986), Nagarjuna was keen on featuring in a film directed by him. Nagarjuna revealed that he used to wait outside Ratnam's house every morning when the director would go on his daily walk to exchange conversation. After a month of regularly attempting to run into the director, Nagarjuna requested him to direct a Telugu film with him in the lead, which the director agreed to after initial reluctance. The film was Geethanjali, which remains the only Telugu film directed by Ratnam. Girija was cast as the lead actress after the director Maniratnam saw her at the wedding of the sister of Krishnamachary Srikanth, former Indian Cricket Team and Suhasini. Girija's voice was dubbed by Rohini during post-production. Principal photography began on 12 October 1988 and was completed in sixty days. Most of the scenes were shot in Ooty and a few shots were filmed in Madras. Ratnam shot the film in the misty valleys of Ooty to give it a soft, poetic atmosphere. Filming would start early in the dawn, around 5 AM, and wrap up by about 11 AM, in order to capture the scenes in a dreamy atmosphere; the cast and crew had to arrive on location one hour before filming. In addition, an ice machine was brought from Madras to provide any additional mist if the shot didn't look romantic enough. Soundtrack The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, with lyrics by Veturi. The first song finalised was "O Papa Lali!". Release Geethanjali was released on 19 May 1989. Praveen Kumar Reddy had to distribute the film himself in select places like Visakhapatnam as distributors were sceptical; despite this, it was a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres. The Tamil-dubbed version Idhayathai Thirudathe () was released on 5 July 1989 and was also successful. Accolades Legacy Nagarjuna became the heart-throb of Telugu filmgoers with Geethanjali. An immense following of girls and ladies began for Nagarjuna. Geethanjali was released five months prior to another trend-setter, Siva starring Nagarjuna. These two films helped Nagarjuna gain both class and mass audience and were the stepping stones for many more blockbusters later in his