Samarasimha Reddy (1999)

In Hyderabad, a modest, soft-spoken man looks after a household with great devotion and keeps his own past hidden. When enemies from Rayalaseema come hunting for him, the truth comes out: he is Samarasimha Reddy, a powerful leader from a faction-ridden region, and the family he protects is bound to him by a debt from that past. The long flashback shows his feud with the brutal Veera Raghava Reddy and the losses it cost. Samarasimha Reddy was a landmark blockbuster for Balakrishna and set off a wave of Telugu "faction" films set in Rayalaseema. Jayaprakash Reddy's menacing villain and Mani Sharma's songs were part of its success.