Bommarillu
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bhaskar
Written by	Bhaskar Abburi Ravi (Dialogues)
Produced by	Dil Raju
Starring	Siddharth Genelia Prakash Raj
Cinematography	Vijay K. Chakravarthy
Edited by	Marthand K. Venkatesh
Music by	Devi Sri Prasad
Production company	Sri Venkateswara Creations
Distributed by	Sri Venkateswara Creations
Release date	9 August 2006 (2006-08-09)
Running time	168 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Budget	₹6 crore[1]
Box office	est. ₹50 crore[1]

Bommarillu (transl. Toy House) (pronunciation^ⓘ) is a 2006 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy family drama film directed and co-written by Bhaskar in his directorial debut, and produced by Dil Raju. The film stars Siddharth, Genelia, and Prakash Raj. The cinematography was handled by Vijay C Chakravarthy and editing done by Marthand K. Venkatesh. The music for the film was composed by Devi Sri Prasad, whose soundtrack of the film received positive reviews from critics.^[2] The film primarily revolves around the relationship between a father and son, in which the father's excessive concern for his son, and interference in his life, leads to the latter harbouring bitterness towards his overbearing father.

The film opened to Indian audiences on 9 August 2006. On its way to winning state honours and rave reviews, the film went on to win several Filmfare Awards among other prominent awards and was one of the highest grossing Telugu films of that year. Following the film's critical and commercial success, it was remade in Tamil as Santosh Subramaniam (2008), in Bengali as Bhalobasa Bhalobasa (2008), in Odia as Dream Girl (2009), and in Hindi as It's My Life (2020).

Aravind is an overbearing father who strives to provide his children more than what they ask for, often overriding their choices. Aravind's youngest son, Siddharth aka Siddhu, doesn't want to be controlled as such. He, however, loves his father and cannot stand up to him. Aravind expects Siddhu to join his construction company; however, Siddhu desires to start his own company and be independent, and hence keeps lying and making excuses. The following week, Aravind gets a reluctant Siddhu engaged to his friend's daughter Subbalakshmi. Subbalakshmi, like Siddhu, is a child whose life is controlled by her father. Much to Siddhu's dismay, she doesn't seem to mind it.

When contemplating his options at a temple, Siddhu accidentally meets Hasini, a free-spirited young woman, and is attracted to her energetic nature, craziness and cheerfulness. The couple begin to meet regularly. As the days go by, Siddhu grows to admire the ever-friendly Hasini as someone who does what she wants to, and finds joy in doing the smallest things with her. He realizes that he is in love.

Alongside this, Siddhu applies for a bank loan to start his own construction company. He proposes to Hasini while also confessing that he is engaged to Subbalakshmi against his wishes. On learning this, Hasini, though dejected for a while, comes back to him a few days later, and advises Siddhu to break off his engagement, declaring that she loves him too. The ecstatic Siddhu yells out his love for Hasini as she leaves in her college bus, and is seen by a furious Aravind.

On being admonished by Aravind back home, Siddhu manages to speak up to Aravind and convinces him to let Hasini stay with their family for a week, telling him that he can judge her only after getting to know her. He convinces Hasini to come and lies to her father, Kanaka Rao, that she is going on a college field trip. The family is initially cold to Hasini, but bit-by-bit, she grows close to many of them, much to Aravind's dismay. As the days pass, Hasini lets slip to Siddhu's family about his behavior outside of his rigid household, including the fact that he sought out a loan. A frustrated Siddhu begins to scold Hasini for the same and the two begin to grow apart.

One day, the family attends a wedding, where, despite Siddhu's warnings, Hasini behaves in a silly way that Aravind would judge to be inappropriate in public. Coincidentally, a drunk Kanaka Rao finds his way to the wedding and nearly spots Hasini, worrying Siddhu. Siddhu admonishes Hasini for her antics, and insults Kanaka Rao, prompting her to angrily remind him of his own habits of drunkenness and cursing his father. Siddhu's family (excluding Aravind) hears this, shocking his family and devastating Siddhu. An angry Siddhu lashes out at Hasini.

When the week is finished, Hasini tells Siddhu and Aravind that she has decided to leave. She explains that Siddhu no longer likes her the way she is and expects her to become someone she's not. She declares that she cannot pretend to be one way inside the house and another way outside the house, like Siddhu, and doesn't want to spend her entire life pretending like him. Siddhu realizes his behaviour and is miserable without Hasini. After returning home, Hasini promises a disappointed and furious Kanaka Rao that she will listen to whatever he says in the future.

When Aravind confronts Siddhu about his aloofness and inability to forget Hasini, Siddhu's mother, Lakshmi, confronts Aravind about the hand he has played in Siddhu's anguish. In the process, Siddhu opens his heart up to his father for the first time, explaining that Aravind's overbearingness has left Siddhu feeling stifled and frustrated his whole life. Aravind sees Siddhu's pain and expresses his apology, promising to let go of his hand in the future. He gives Siddhu his blessings to take control of his own life and, as repentance, promises to help Siddhu win back Hasini back.

Siddhu meets with Subbalakshmi and her parents and tells them that he wants to call off the marriage. Although they are shocked, Subbalakshmi eventually agrees, standing up to her father and telling him that she doesn't want to marry someone who is not interested in her. Meanwhile, Aravind tries to convince Kanaka Rao to forgive them and accept Siddhu and his family. While Kanaka Rao accepts their apology, he doesn't approve of Siddhu, having seen him drunk on the streets once. Aravind suggests that Kanaka Rao let Siddhu stay with them for a week, just as Hasini did. After a tumultuous week's stay, Kanaka Rao is convinced, letting the couple unite.

Prior to Bommarillu, Bhaskar assisted Dil Raju in Telugu films such as Arya (2004) and Bhadra (2005). On the sets of the film Arya, Raju offered Bhaskar a film to direct. On the sets of Bhadra, Bhaskar narrated the story to Raju and the saga began.^[3] Thus, Bommarillu became the first directorial venture for Bhaskar.^[3] In an interview, he said that the story for the film began taking shape in as early as 1997 when he wrote about a father and a son's relationship. However, when the plans of making the film arose, an element of love between the protagonists was added. In the interview, he said that the script, to an extent, is autobiographical.^[3] He cites personal examples of some scenes from the film such as the choice of clothes for Siddhu by Aravind, the head-bump between the lead actors and Lakshmi singing in the kitchen.^[4]

In an interview, Vijay C Chakravarthy, the cinematographer for the film, said that Dil Raju offered him the position in November 2005. For the film, Vijay said that he made use of Arriflex 435 camera and Hawk lenses.^[4] In another interview, Bhaskar said working with Abburi Ravi, his co-writer, was unique. They used to converse in a closed room with a voice recorder, allowing the dialogues in the script to be natural. He also heaped praise on Marthand K. Venkatesh, the film's editor. After filming, the length of the film reel came to 16,200 feet (4,900 m) which amounted to a runtime of 3 hours and 15 minutes. The presence of Marthand brought this down to 15,100 feet (4,600 m). This meant a reduction in the runtime by 25 minutes.^[4]

The choice of Siddharth was because of the sheer relevance to the character in real life. However, they finalized the choice of the actor only after the script was ready.^[3][5] The choice of Genelia was based on her natural vivacity in real life. This and her eyes, according to Bhaskar, made her an obvious choice for her character.^[3] More so, she liked the one line story that Raju told and also a few scenes that he narrated to her. She immediately liked the character and consented for the role.^[6] The fact that her co-actor, Siddharth and she acted earlier together in Boys (2003), made them more comfortable to work with. The camaraderie that the lead actors shared during the filming, added to their performances.^[7] The choice of Prakash Raj was easy as he befitted the character he portrayed while, Jayasudha was persuaded to play the role of the lead actor's mother.^[3]

The shooting of the film took about three and a half months.^[4] The palatial house where the entire family stayed in the film is part of Ramanaidu Studios at Nanakramguda, Hyderabad. Several modifications were done by the art director, Prakash.^[5] A couple of the songs were shot in a montage, another couple in Frankfurt am Main and other places in Germany and one song each in this house set and at a temple in Kakinada.^[5]

For the film's music and soundtrack, Raju renewed his previous association (Arya and Bhadra) with Devi Sri Prasad.^[5] Siddharth sung one of the tracks from this film.^[8] The film has seven songs composed by Devi Sri Prasad with the lyrics primarily penned by Chandrabose, Ravi Kumar Bhaskarabhatla, Kulasekhar and Sirivennela Sitaramasastri.^[9] A repository of Indian songs has recommended the feel-good soundtracks to the audiences.^[10]

This film had given Siddarth stardom in Telugu cinema.^[1] After 18 years, Bommarillu re-released on 21 September 2024.^[11]

The film received critical acclaim.^[12] Jeevi of Idlebrain.com gave the film a rating of 4.5/5.^[12] B. Anuradha of Nowrunning rated the film 5/5 stars and wrote, "Debutant director Bhaskar, weaving the film around an interesting plot, shows a conspicuous flair for comedy".^[13] Kishore of the same portal wrote, "'Bommarillu' is like a gentle gust of cool and fresh wind amidst the stench and stale air".^[14]

The film had its own share of controversies. A news report showcased the omnipresent piracy in the Telugu film industry by quoting the cheap prices at which the film was being sold.^[15] The film's producer, Dil Raju, ensured a special code on each distributed print to track piracy with a warning for copyright violation which would incur a fine or a jail term.^[16]

In April 2007, a case of copyright infringement was filed on the film's producer and director that prompted a court to stall the screening of the film. The allegation pointed out that the film was made based on a compilation of short stories that was released in 1997.^[17]

The Hindi remake of the film titled It's My Life was started by Boney Kapoor in 2007,^[18] and scenes were shot with Harman Baweja and Genelia.^[19] The film remained unreleased for over a decade,^[20] before having a direct-to-television premiere on 29 November 2020.^[21] The film was remade in Tamil, Bengali and Odia languages under the titles Santosh Subramaniam,^[22] Bhalobasa Bhalobasa^[23] and Dream Girl,^[24] respectively, in 2008 and 2009. Although it was remade in Bengali, the film was also dubbed in that language as Ki Likhi Tomay.^[25]

The DVD version of the film was released on 4 June 2007^[31] and distributed by I Dream Dvd internationally.^[32] It is available in 16:9 Anamorphic widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, progressive 24 FPS, widescreen and NTSC format.^[31][33]

• Bommarillu at IMDb
• Bommarillu at Rotten Tomatoes