U Turn is a 2018 Indian bilingual supernatural mystery-thriller film written and directed by Pawan Kumar and produced by Srinivasa Chitturi and Rambabu Bandaru under the banners BR8 Creations, V. Y. Combines and Srinivasa Silver Screen. The plot revolves around the death of motorists who break a traffic rule at a particular flyover and subsequent pinning down of the culprit by an intern journalist and police inspector duo. Filmed simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu, it is a remake of director's own 2016 Kannada film of the same name. The film features Samantha Akkineni, Aadhi Pinisetty, Bhumika Chawla, and Rahul Ravindran in the lead roles. Principal photography of the film was commenced in February 2018 and was ended in June. U-Turn is a songless film, featuring background score composed by Pornachandra Tejaswi and a promotional song composed by Anirudh Ravichander. The cinematography was handled by Niketh Bommireddy and edited by Suresh Arumugam. The film released on 13 September 2018, coinciding with the Ganesh Chathurthi festival and received a positive response from critics, becoming successful. The film was made available as a VOD at Amazon Prime Video on 25 October 2018.
Plot
Rachana, an intern, with The Times of India, a daily newspaper, is working on an article on the incidents at a flyover. She also has a crush on the crime reporter Aditya, whose help she seeks for research material on accidents on the flyover. She finds that each day some motorists move the concrete blocks that partition the road just to take a quick U-turn and avoid the traffic. They don’t move them back and the blocks are left to lie randomly on the road leading to many accidents. A homeless man sitting on the flyover notes down the vehicle numbers of commuters who violate the rule to take the U-turn and gives the list to Rachana. She obtains the details of the culprits using her contact in the traffic department, with the intention of confronting them for their "short-cut" and writing an article for the paper. Her attempt to meet thefirst person on the list goes in vain. Later the same day, the police take her into custody and accuse her of killing the same person she wanted to meet. She is shocked and tells her side of the story. Though the senior police officer rejects it, sub-inspector Pradeep Nayak finds it believable and does some investigation. It is revealed that all the persons Rachana has on her list have committed suicide. They also noticed that they have committed suicide the same day they took the wrong "u-turn". Rachana and Nayak find another number has been noted by the homeless man which is to be delivered to Rachana the next day. The duo trace the address and try to rescue the man, a lawyer, who has taken the u-turn on the same day. As nothing seems suspicious, both leave only to encounter the very death of the lawyer whom they came to rescue,who jumps off his balcony and died falling on the police car in which Nayak and rachana were leaving. Later Rachana tries to confront the homeless man for the injuries in the fly-over. Meanwhile, she sees two young men violate the U-Turn and reports it to Nayak. Nayak locks them up in an old Police lock-up to save them. But they start fighting and eventually die under the nose of the police. With no way of finding the real cause of the death of the culprits, Rachana herself takes the wrong u-turn and waits for something to happen. The one who has been killing the culprits is a woman named Maya, because she and her daughter Aarna died in an accident due to the concrete roadblocks that were moved by the culprits in order to make way for their u-turn. Using her supernatural powers, Maya tries to kill Rachana as well. But Rachana promises to find the person who was responsible for Maya's death. Maya agrees. Rachana, with the help of Nayak, tries to find the person who moved the blocks on the day of Maya's accident. They find out the phone number and address of the guy who moved the block. Rachana writes this on a balloon and leaves it on the flyover for Maya to find. She then invites her boyfriend Aditya for dinner. During dinner she tries to call the number she found out earlier. It turns out to be Aditya's work mobile number. Devastated she confronts Aditya and informs him that due to his negligence a mother and daughter lost their lives. Aditya says it was not him who made the U-turn. He merely exchanged his bike with his friend. In the final twist, it is revealed that the guy who moved the block was Maya's own husband Ritesh. Maya's ghost is waiting in Aditya's house to kill him when Maya's husband whom Rachna has informed about the events turns up and explains to Maya that it was because of him that they lost their lives. He then tries to commit suicide by jumping from the balcony. Maya's ghost saves him and tells him that his punishment is to suffer in this world without his wife and daughter.
U Turn is a remake of the 2016 Kannada film of the same name. It was filmed simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu languages, to bank on the popularity of lead actress Samantha Akkineni in the Tamil and Telugu film industries. Pawan Kumar, who directed the original, returned to direct the bilingual remake, marking his debut in Tamil and Telugu. He also made the last 30 minutes different from the Kannada original. The remake was produced by Srinivasa Chitturi and Rambabu Bandaru under the banners BR8 Creations, V. Y. Combines and Srinivasa Silver Screen. Cinematography was handled by Niketh Bommireddy, and editing by Suresh Arumugam. Filming began in February 2018 at Rajahmundry, and ended in June.
Soundtrack
U Turn is a songless film. The movie features background score composed by Poornachandra Tejaswi and a promotional song composed by Anirudh Ravichander, which was not included in the film itself. The song "The Karma Theme" which was sung by Anirudh Ravichander with Alisha Thomas on backing vocals, was released on 5 September 2018 as a promotional song for the film, and a promotional video song was released on the same day. Directed by Krishna Marimuthu, with cinematography handled by Niketh Bommireddy the music video, features Samantha and Anirudh making onscreen appearances in the video. The song was released in both Tamil and Telugu languages and turned out to become an instant hit from listeners.
Release
U Turn was released on 13 September 2018, during Ganesh Chaturthi. Thinkal Menon of The Times of India rated the Tamil version 3 out of 5, writing "An interesting remake with enough twists and turns, and a climax that could have been more convincing."
Box office
The film collected approximately worldwide in four days. The film collected approximately in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in first weekend and The film collected approximately in United States, in Australia and in international box office. The film collected in overseas in first weekend. The film approximately collected worldwide in first weekend.
