The Telugu movie titled “Ashta Chamma” is a loose adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play “The

importance of being earnest”. The movie went on to become one of the biggest hits in the Telugu Film
industry in 2008 though it was a low budget production with no popular star cast. The unlikely success of
the movie was documented as a case study at ISB in 2008.

The movie begins with a young city bred girl Lavanya madly in love with popular film star
Mahesh Babu. However, when Mahesh Babu gets married, she is initially depressed but later resolves to
be content to find herself a husband with the name Mahesh. She eventually finds a young man named
Mahesh in Hyderabad and very soon Lavanya and Mahesh are in love.

The story is about a young man, Ram Babu of the remote village of Lakkavaram in Andhra
Pradesh. Unexpected series of events force Ram Babu to step into the shoes of his father as the village
headman. Being a headman, Ram Babu is forced to put up the image of being a man of virtue and soon
feels stifled for freedom. To break free, Ram Babu devises a plot wherein he migrates to Hyderabad for
15 days in a month where along with his name, he completely changes his lifestyle. He starts calling
himself Mahesh in Hyderabad and parties at every known pub in the town. Understandably Ram Babu
keeps his life as Mahesh a secret in the village.

Trouble brews when Ram Babu falls in love with a young urbane girl Lavanya in Hyderabad to
whom he introduces himself as Mahesh. The couple soon find themselves in a relationship singing songs
and running around tress. To worsen matters, Lavanya reveals casually to Ram Babu that she is very
fond of the name Mahesh since she is big fan of the film star Mahesh Babu and that she was primarily
drawn to Ram Babu due to her fondness for the name Mahesh. The rest of the plot is about how Ram
Babu works around all the characters to convince the lady of his heart to marry him after she comes to
know of his real name.

The movie received critical reviews for its adaptation of a play based in the 16 th century English
society to modern day Indian set up. Much of the cast were debutants who brought freshness to their
characters.