Balakrishna Vs Venkatesh… One Story War

Copyright issues are common in cinema, but the 1989 clash between Nandamuri Balakrishna’s Ashoka Chakravarthy and Venkatesh’s Dhruva Nakshatram remains unforgettable. Both films were inspired by the Malayalam movie Aryan and were released on the same day, June 29, 1989. While Venkatesh’s film emerged as a super hit and ran successfully, Balakrishna’s film failed at the box office, creating a huge controversy.

The producers of Ashoka Chakravarthy, who had officially purchased remake rights, accused the makers of Dhruva Nakshatram and also targeted writers Paruchuri Brothers for not informing them. Venkatesh later clarified that he was unaware of the similarity and would not have done the film otherwise, while Balakrishna chose to stay silent. Though the issue settled later, it remains one of Tollywood’s biggest copyright controversies.