General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Premabhishekam (ప్రేమాభిషేకం)

Premabhishekam (ప్రేమాభిషేకం; transl. Anointing of Love) is a 1981 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film written and directed by Dasari Narayana Rao and produced by Venkat Akkineni and Nagarjuna Akkineni under the Annapurna Studios banner.

Key fact	Detail
Release	18 February 1981 (some listings give 16 February)¹^•²
Lead cast	Akkineni Nageswara Rao as Rajesh, Sridevi as Devi, Jayasudha as Jayanthi³
Music	Chakravarthy; seven songs, all sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and P. Susheela¹⁴
Runtime	147 minutes¹
Remakes	Tamil Vazhvey Maayam (1982), Hindi Prem Tapasya (1983), Oriya Prathama Prema⁴

Spoilers

Plot

Rajesh (Akkineni Nageswara Rao) falls in love with Devi (Sridevi). After a series of misunderstandings and frequent quarrels, Devi rejects his proposal and humiliates him.¹ Rajesh then learns that he has cancer. He decides to avoid her and behaves rudely so that she will consider marrying Prasad, a friend of her brother.³

In the later part of the story, Rajesh marries Jayanthi and begins his final journey.⁴ Devi marries Prasad but learns the truth about Rajesh's condition soon afterward, rushes to meet him, and, when everyone assembles at his place, Rajesh blesses the married Devi and peacefully dies.⁵ The film's stated theme is that the meaning of love is sacrifice: even at the point of death, the lover seeks the beloved's happiness.¹

Jayasudha plays Jayanthi, a prostitute, in a pivotal role; her natural performance opposite the glamorous Sridevi was credited with lifting the film, and she won the Nandi Award for Best Actress for the year.⁶

Production

Shooting began on 20 September 1980, Akkineni Nageswara Rao's birthday, and the film was completed in 32 shooting days in Hyderabad and Chennai.⁶ It was released on 18 February 1981, the date of ANR's wedding anniversary, and its 100-day function fell on 28 May 1981, N. T. Rama Rao's birthday, the same day Satyam Shivam, the last film pairing NTR and ANR, was released.¹

Most of the songs were picturized at Annapurna Studios, two were shot in Madras, and "Devi Mounama" was filmed at a temple in Hyderabad. While the film was in production at the studio, Dasari was simultaneously handling post-production and shooting for five other films.¹ Cinematography was by P. S. Selvaraj and editing by B. Krishnam Raju.¹

Music

The song "Nee Kallu" was reused in the Tamil remake Vaazhvey Maayam as "Mazhaikaala Megam".¹⁵ The songs remained popular for decades; anniversary coverage in 2026 described "Naa Kallu Chebuthunnayi", "Vandanam Abhivandanam", and "Oka Devuni Gudilo" as evergreen hits.⁷

Box office and theatrical run

The film was a major commercial success. Preview audiences expected a film similar to Prem Nagar with no villain and no antagonist roles, and few predicted a big run, but it drew extraordinary popularity from its first show and set records on its opening day: released in 32 centers, it completed 100 days in 30 of them and celebrated silver jubilees in 29.¹

Its run figures are reported with some variation. Sakshi's retrospective states that it ran 365 days directly at Vijaya Talkies in Guntur, 380 days at that theater, achieved golden jubilees (50 weeks) in eight centers and diamond jubilees (60 weeks) in five, and ran 527 days in Vijayawada and Hyderabad with shifts and noon shows, making it the first film to complete a 75-week platinum jubilee run in undivided Andhra Pradesh.⁶ A Telugu film database lists a 533-day run, calling it the highest theatrical run for a Telugu film to that point.⁸ A trade compilation reports 533 days direct and a platinum jubilee at two centers, Hyderabad and Vijayawada.⁹

Gross figures also differ by source. Sakshi reports that the film grossed ₹15 million (₹1.5 crore; కోటిన్నర), ANR's first ₹10 million (₹1 crore) film, and quotes him saying at the Madras golden jubilee function that Dasari had promised the story would cross ₹10 million (₹1 crore) and it exceeded that by ₹3 million (₹30 lakh).⁶ IMDb's trivia gives around ₹90 million (₹9 crore) gross with a ₹45 million (₹4.5 crore) share and estimates about 45 million (4.5 crore; 45 million) footfalls in India, calling it the all-time highest-grossing South Indian film at the time.³ A trade compilation lists a worldwide gross of ₹75 million (₹7.5 crore) and a share of ₹35 million (₹3.5 crore).⁹ These estimates are not reconcilable from the available sources and are reported here as given.

The film was re-released with heavy publicity across the state on 20 September 1985, ANR's birthday, but did not draw the expected crowds in repeat runs; a further re-release in 1995, without any promotion, brought good collections.⁶ It was again screened free in theaters in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for ANR's 101st birth anniversary in 2025.¹⁰

Awards

Remakes and legacy

Following its success, the film was remade in Tamil as Vazhvey Maayam (1982) with Kamal Haasan, in Hindi as Prem Tapasya (1983), directed by Dasari himself with Jeetendra, Reena Roy, and Rekha and produced by ANR, and in Oriya as Prathama Prema.⁴^•⁶ The Tamil version was also dubbed into Malayalam under the same title as the original. According to Sakshi, none of these versions matched the Telugu original's reception, and Kamal Haasan said publicly that he could not do what ANR had done in the role.⁶

The film is regarded as a milestone of Akkineni Nageswara Rao's career and a defining tragic love story of Telugu cinema; the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema places it among Dasari's Devdas-like love-triangle melodramas.¹¹ Annapurna Studios marked the film's 45th anniversary in February 2026 with a tribute video.¹² The film is listed as streaming on the Aha platform.¹³

References

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

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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