Karthikeya (film)

Karthikeya
Film poster
Directed by	Chandoo Mondeti
Produced by	Venkat Srinivas
Written by	Chandoo Mondeti
Starring	Nikhil Siddharth Swati Reddy Tanikella Bharani Rao Ramesh Jayaprakash
Music by	Shekar Chandra
Cinematography	Karthik Ghattamaneni
Edited by	Karthika Srinivas
Production company	Magnus Cine Prime Pvt. Ltd.
Release date	24 October 2014 (2014-10-24)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu Tamil
Budget	₹60 million (US$930,000)
Box office	₹200 million (US$3.1 million)(17 Days)

Karthikeya is a 2014 bilingual mystery thriller written & directed by Chandoo Mondeti shot in Telugu & Tamil languages simultaneously. It was produced by Venkat Srinivas on Magnus Cine Prime Pvt. Ltd. and featured Nikhil Siddharth, Swati Reddy, Tanikella Bharani and Rao Ramesh in important roles. Shekhar Chandra composed the film's music while Karthik Ghattamaneni and Karthika Srinivas were its cinematographer and editor respectively. The film revolves around a closed Kartikeya temple on the border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and showcases the life of a curious medico Karthik and his nexus with the temple.

It was launched on 10 June 2013 at Hyderabad and its Principal photography began on 5 July 2013 which lasted till 21 February 2014. It was shot in Visakhapatnam, Araku and Kumararama temple in Samarlakota. However, the temple shown in the film is the Udayarpalayam Siva temple near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu. Also nearly 90% of the film was shot in and around Tamil Nadu. After few postponements, the film released on 24 October 2014 as a Diwali release to positive reviews from critics.

After Swamy Ra Ra, Nikhil Siddharth signed his next film directed by his friend Chandoo Mondeti in which he was supposed to play "a smart, well educated, suave young man studying MBBS". The film was announced as a Telugu-Tamil bilingual marking Nikhil's debut in Tamil cinema. The Telugu version was titled as Karthikeya while Tamil version was said to have a different title. He also revealed that his character in the film is very curious and a sort of Sherlock Holmes kind of person. For his role, Nikhil had to increase his weight by 10 kilos and did research for the role which involved spending time with medical students and doctors before the shooting and had to overcome the fear of injections and blood.