{ "id": "epafjqnmh2", "slug": "money-1993-film", "title": "Money (మనీ) (1993 film)", "updated": "2026-10-15", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema", "label": "Indian films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.telugu-films-before-2000", "label": "Telugu films before 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.telugu-films-before-2000" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.telugu-films-before-2000", "label": "India · 1946 to 2000: Telugu films before 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.telugu-films-before-2000", "path": [ { "id": "geo.ind", "label": "India", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946", "label": "India · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema", "label": "Indian films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.telugu-films-before-2000", "label": "Telugu films before 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.telugu-films-before-2000" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Money is a 1993 Indian Telugu-language comedy thriller directed by Siva Nageswara Rao, produced by Ram Gopal Varma, and starring J. D. Chakravarthy, Jayasudha, and Brahmanandam.", "snippet": "Money is a 1993 Indian Telugu-language comedy thriller directed by Siva Nageswara Rao, produced by Ram Gopal Varma, and starring J. D. Chakravarthy, Jayasudha, and Brahmanandam.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.telugu-films-before-2000", "markdown": "# Money (మనీ) (1993 film)\n\nTwo unemployed friends need money fast, so they do the obvious thing: they kidnap their rich neighbor and demand a ransom. What they do not know is that her husband has been trying to have her murdered for months, and when the phone rings, the man on the other end is not negotiating her release. Money is a 1993 Indian Telugu-language comedy thriller directed by Siva Nageswara Rao, produced by [Ram Gopal Varma](https://www.edgepedia.org/ram-gopal-varma), and starring [J. D. Chakravarthy](https://www.edgepedia.org/j-d-chakravarthy), Chinna, Jayasudha, Paresh Rawal, and [Brahmanandam](https://www.edgepedia.org/brahmanandam).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n| --- | --- |\n| Director | Siva Nageswara Rao (directorial debut) |\n| Producer | Ram Gopal Varma |\n| Music | Sri Kommineni |\n| Cinematography | Teja |\n| Starring | J. D. Chakravarthy, Chinna, Jayasudha, Paresh Rawal, Brahmanandam, Renuka Shahane, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Tanikella Bharani |\n| Release | June 10, 1993 (Telugu) |\n| Runtime | About 2 hours 11 minutes |\n| Follow-ups | Spawned a Money film collection of sequels |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nHyderabad. Bose (Chinna) and Chakri (J. D. Chakravarthy) are unemployed friends sharing a room and opposite philosophies. Bose wants to earn an honest living and keeps failing; Chakri is convinced dishonesty is simply the faster route. Bose's poverty has a face: he loves Renu ([Renuka Shahane](https://www.edgepedia.org/renuka-shahane)), his landlord's daughter, but cannot even pay his own rent, and when her father begins arranging her marriage, the humiliation of proposing empty-handed pushes him to the edge.\n\nTheir wealthy neighbor Vijaya ([Jayasudha](https://www.edgepedia.org/jayasudha)) becomes the target. What the two friends do not know is that her money is exactly the problem: her husband Subba Rao ([Paresh Rawal](https://www.edgepedia.org/paresh-rawal)) is entirely dependent on her fortune, drowning in debt, and has already commissioned a series of failed assassinations so he can inherit. Bose and Chakri snatch Vijaya for ransom and stumble into the one man in [Hyderabad](https://www.edgepedia.org/hyderabad) who is thrilled to hear about it.\n\n**Subba Rao's response to the ransom call is the scene the film is remembered for.** Instead of haggling over the money, the calm, lawyer-coached husband offers the kidnappers more than they asked for, on one condition: kill his wife. Paresh Rawal plays the moment with no flicker of conscience, an administrative approach to uxoricide that turns a standard kidnap comedy inside out. Bose and Chakri, shocked out of their greed, tell Vijaya what her husband said and play her the call. From there the kidnappers and their hostage are on the same side, and the film becomes a con run in reverse: two amateurs, one heiress, and a husband who must be caught.\n\nThe plan's centerpiece is the trap at Golconda Fort. They fake Vijaya's murder and stage the \"body\" at the fort to lure Subba Rao into incriminating himself, turning his own lawyer's advice, that a guilty man must make sure the body is never found, into the noose around his neck. The collision with the film's second plot arrives at exactly the wrong moment: Khan Dada (Brahmanandam), a small-time rowdy fleeing after killing the conman who cheated him, crashes into Bose and Chakri's scheme at the fort, and the two storylines finally lock together for the climax. The police close in while Subba Rao bolts, and the great parasite ends the film penniless and wifeless, hiding in a dhaba on a car bound for Gujarat. In the cynical coda, nobody reforms: Vijaya simply hires her former kidnappers at her company, and the money changes hands to people marginally less willing to commit murder.\n\nRunning parallel through all of this is Khan Dada's own story, a subplot unrelated to the kidnapping for most of the runtime. He is a local goon who fancies himself destined for film stardom, and a fake talent scout ([Tanikella Bharani](https://www.edgepedia.org/tanikella-bharani)) cons him stage by stage. Brahmanandam plays the vanity completely straight, reacting to each betrayal with wounded grandeur, and his dancing became one of the film's most iconic images. The thread only connects to the main plot at the fort, but it pays off.\n\n### Characters\n\n- **Chakri** (J. D. Chakravarthy) is the fast-talking friend who believes dishonesty is the shortest path to money, in the actor's first lead role.\n- **Bose** (Chinna) is the honest one, in love with his landlord's daughter and humiliated by his own empty pockets.\n- **Vijaya** (Jayasudha) is the wealthy kidnap victim, a woman discovering mid-crisis what her marriage actually is, kept from being a mere plot object by Jayasudha's steadier playing.\n- **Subba Rao** (Paresh Rawal) is her husband, a debt-ridden parasite who treats arranging his wife's murder like paperwork, in a gleeful, stylized performance in the [Danny DeVito](https://www.edgepedia.org/danny-devito) role.\n- **Khan Dada** (Brahmanandam) is a self-styled star-in-waiting and small-time rowdy whose gullibility and grandeur stole the film.\n- **Renu** (Renuka Shahane) is Bose's love, mostly required to issue ultimatums, while [Kota Srinivasa Rao](https://www.edgepedia.org/kota-srinivasa-rao), Sharat Saxena, and Tanikella Bharani fill out the ensemble.\n\n### Sequels, prequels, and universe\n\nThe film's success spawned a Money collection of sequels in [Telugu cinema](https://www.edgepedia.org/telugu-cinema), and its mix of crime mechanics and ensemble farce became a template the industry imitated for years.\n\n## Reception\n\nMoney was a hit on release and has aged into a cult favorite. Retrospective reviewers single out Paresh Rawal's performance in the Danny DeVito role and Brahmanandam's Khan Dada dancing as \"cinema,\" and one compares its 1993 shock value to what [Mathu Vadalara](https://www.edgepedia.org/mathu-vadalara) did in 2019, noting the film's cut-in references to Ram Gopal Varma's own [Shiva](https://www.edgepedia.org/shiva-1990-film) and [Kshana Kshanam](https://www.edgepedia.org/kshana-kshanam).[1](https://letterboxd.com/film/money/) Viewers still quote remembered lines like \"Bhadram be careful brotheruu.\"[1](https://letterboxd.com/film/money/) The film is now available on Aha, Airtel Xstream Play, and Prime Video.[2](https://www.gudvibe.app/movies/8189-money-1993)\n\n## Production\n\nIt was a loose remake of [Ruthless People](https://www.edgepedia.org/ruthless-people), produced by Ram Gopal Varma's first production company, and marked Siva Nageswara Rao's directorial debut and J. D. Chakravarthy's first lead role.[3](https://www.allmovie.com/movie/money-am59036) The Khan Dada subplot was reportedly shot in three days and grafted onto a short first cut, an accident that improved the movie. Sri Kommineni composed the score and Teja, later a director himself, shot it.[3](https://www.allmovie.com/movie/money-am59036)\n\n## References\n\n1. https://letterboxd.com/film/money/\n2. https://www.gudvibe.app/movies/8189-money-1993\n3. https://www.allmovie.com/movie/money-am59036\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Telugu films before 2000*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Oct 3, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/money-1993-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/money-1993-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Money (మనీ) (1993 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/money-1993-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Money (మనీ) (1993 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/money-1993-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/money-1993-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/money-1993-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Money (మనీ) (1993 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/money-1993-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Money is a 1993 Indian Telugu-language comedy thriller directed by Siva Nageswara Rao, produced by Ram Gopal Varma, and starring J. D. Chakravarthy, Jayasudha, and Brahmanandam." }