Siva (1989)

Siva arrives in Vijayawada to study and finds the campus controlled by student thugs who are themselves the foot soldiers of Bhavani, a ruthless local don who uses student politics to keep his grip on the city. Siva is not looking for trouble, but when he will not back down, a single fight becomes a feud, and the feud draws in his friends, his family and the girl he loves. Ram Gopal Varma's debut changed Telugu cinema: its realistic violence, natural sound design, Steadicam-style camerawork and lean storytelling felt like nothing before it, and the bicycle-chain fight became iconic. Raghuvaran's soft-spoken Bhavani is one of the great screen villains. The film was a huge hit and was remade in Hindi as Shiva (1990) by Varma himself.