One journalist fakes a terrorist to expose corruption. What could go wrong? EVERYTHING.
Azad (Telugu: ఆజాద్) is a 2000 Telugu film directed by Tirupathi Swamy. It stars Akkineni Nagarjuna in the lead role and Raghuvaran, Shilpa Shetty, and Soundarya in other important roles. C. Ashwini Dutt produced the film and Mani Sharma composed music. The film was released on 29 September 2000 and was dubbed into Hindi as Mission Azaad. The film was later remade into Tamil as Velayudham. The story was inspired from 1989 hindi film Main Azaad Hoon in which Amitabh Bachchan played the lead role of Azaad.
Acting
Nagarjuna pulls off triple-duty: journalist, fake terrorist, actual hero
Score
Mani Sharma's soundtrack absolutely slaps — pure adrenaline fuel
Direction
Tirupathi Swamy knows exactly what this movie is and commits hard
Director
Tirupathi Swamy
Nagarjuna Akkineni
Chandra Sekhar Azad
Raghuvaran
Deva / CBI Officer Vishwanath / Harkat Ul Ansari Dawood
Soundarya
Anjali
Shilpa Shetty Kundra
Kanaka Mahalakshmi
Prakash Raj
Inspector Salim
Tanikella Bharani
Kanaka Raju
L. B. Sriram
Sastry
Sujitha
Kaveri
Banerjee
Benarjee
Brahmanandam
Kalairani
Sujitha
Nutan Prasad
Ananth Babu
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This is essentially a Telugu response to Amitabh's Main Azaad Hoon, but with extra masala and Nagarjuna's specific brand of charming chaos.
The Tamil remake Velayudham with Vijay came 11 years later — proof that this 'fake hero becomes real hero' template has serious staying power in South Indian cinema.
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