Samudram (1999)

Samudram ("the sea") is a 1999 Telugu crime drama from Krishna Vamsi, the director of Gulabi and Ninne Pelladata, here working in a darker, violent register. Jagapati Babu leads, with Sakshi Shivanand as the heroine and a young Ravi Teja, in the years before his stardom, in an important supporting part. Veteran Tanikella Bharani was widely noticed for playing the menacing villain, a striking change from his comic and character roles. The film deals with crime, power and retribution and is of interest to those following Krishna Vamsi's career or Ravi Teja's early work.