An evergreen college-based entertainer

Student life and recreating those sweet moments later in a reunion is a theme which is laden with immense possibilities for directors who are clued into that particular genre. Lal Jose's original Malayalam film- Classmates - released in 2006 is one such movie. It not only became the highest grosser in Kerala cinema during that year but also has become a cult classic, spawning in its wake, many alumni reunions in the State, which is known for a vibrant student community. It is presently considered a classic of Malayalam cinema, which had stars like Prithviraj, Jayasurya and Kavya Madhavan to lend a solid heft to the proceedings.

Director K Vijaya Bhaskar, who was known for his youthful themes and romantic entertainers by then in Telugu cinema, was vested with the remake initiative in Telugu, which released a year later. The venture was bankrolled by Sravanthi Ravi Kishore, who had just this film to show for in that particular year. Starring Sumanth, Sadha, Sharwanand and Kamalinee Mukherjee, all of them climbing up the popularity charts then, this film appealed to the Telugu audience, even if it was not as phenomenal as it was in Malayalam.

A coming-of-age film of those days, it had a good mix of campus capers, romance, a suspenseful twist and a fast-paced narration.

The critics may not have been too kind with their reviews which placed the film in the 'average' category but it did manage to strike a chord among the young viewers who were outgrowing the superstars and megastars of the 1990s.

As is the case, the Telugu reprisal was nativized to suit the taste of the local audience which gave it the thumbs up. It was the ninth film of

K Vijaya Bhaskar, who had a dozen films to his credit in his career between 1991- 2013, many of them establishing him among the successful lot of helmsmen in Telugu cinema, despite a ' Jai Chiranjeeva' which blotted his copybook.

A measure of a film's pan-Indian appeal those days was the number of languages it was remade. Viewed in that context, the Malayalam film found its way into Telugu, Tamil and Marathi in the decade between 2006-2015. Sumanth and Sharwanand are still around in Telugu cinema, the latter being more successful than the former as far as box-office status and standing is concerned while Prithviraj is now a pan-Indian star on his own right with his role plays extending beyond acting to movie production too in his native cinema industry.