Fans of Telugu actor Allu Arjun were elated when the Hindi-dubbed version of his 2017 hit Duvvada Jagannadham, released on YouTube on November 19 2017, raced to the 100-million (10 crore) views mark on January 30. Directed by Harish Shankar, the June 23, 2017 release became the second highest-grossing film of Allu Arjun’s career.
The film has reportedly created a record among officially released Hindi-dubbed Telugu films on YouTube by notching 10 crore views in the shortest amount of time: 72 days. Duvvada Jagannadham, like Allu Arjun’s other hits such as S/O Satyamurthy (2015) and Sarrainodu (2016), has been dubbed in Hindi and uploaded on the YouTube channel of Goldmines Telefilms.
The Hindi versions of the Telugu hits released on the channel are heavily edited for length. The Hindi version of Duvvada Jagannadham runs for 120 minutes, while the original is over 146 minutes long. Among the casualties are the songs.
Arjun plays the titular character of a Brahmin priest who runs a “pure vegetarian” catering business for public consumption while hunting down criminals and killing them in private. His character, mythologised as “DJ”, has been dispensing vigilante justice since he was a child.
As a young boy, DJ saves upright police officer Purushottam (Murali Sharma) from a criminal gang. Purushottam is gobsmacked by DJ’s sense of righteousness. “Born as a Brahmin but doing the duty of a Kshatriya,” he approvingly observes. Purushottam takes DJ under his wing and an assassin is born.
The older DJ does comic routines as the overly pious Brahmin, throws punch dialogue and literal punches as the assassin, gets the snooty woman Pooja (played by Pooja Hegde) to fall for him, and dances with her to catchy Devi Sri Prasad-composed tunes which are, sadly, missing from the Hindi version. The romantic track between DJ and Pooja is also cut to size in Hindi.
Not that you miss much anyway. The story, tailor-made for Allu Arjun fans, will fit on one side of a napkin. All efforts are devoted towards highlighting the Telugu actor’s ability to play joker, hero, dutiful son and lover, in no particular order.
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