The story follows Gautham, a rock musician suffering from schizophrenia[a] and missing 25 percent of his brain's grey matter, as he embarks on a quest to find his parents with the help of his girlfriend, Sameera, a journalist.

Filming took place in various locations including London, Belfast, Bangkok, and Indian cities such as Hyderabad, Mumbai, Goa, Chennai, and Bangalore.

The film received mixed to positive reviews, with praise directed towards its music, cinematography, action sequences, and Mahesh Babu's performance.

He saves her from a group of people trying to murder her; on an isolated island together, Gautham learns the truth behind the fourth imaginary person and writes Sameera off as a disturbed journalist.

Although he is convinced that he has made up an enemy to cope with being an orphan, a mysterious person tries to kill Sameera but Gautham saves her.

The Rubik's Cube, when solved a certain way, reveals a safe deposit-box number in which Gautham finds a preserved rice sample.

When Gautham's father refused to sell it in favor of distributing it globally for free, the businessman and Rosarios killed his parents.

Although Sukumar could not describe the story well in the noisy restaurant, Babu agreed to appear in the film within half an hour.

[9] He followed a 12-week Dynamic Transformation Plan (DTP) supervised by Kris Gethin, developing his abdominal muscles and losing weight.

[19] Sukumar had Babu wear eyeglasses, since the director felt that audiences tended to consider a bespectacled character to be perfectionistic and positive, and the actor's hairstyle was changed.

[20] She declined the offer, citing scheduling conflicts,[21] and the Producer's Council told her not to sign for any new films until she completed her current assignments.

[16] Sanon was signed for Heropanti (2014) after completing one shooting schedule for 1: Nenokkadine, and divided her time between the films.

[23] Babu's seven-year-old son, Gautham Krishna, was chosen to play the younger version of the protagonist in his Telugu cinema debut.

[26] Naveen Polishetty played a supporting role as Babu's friend in the film,[27] and Vikram Singh was signed as an antagonist.

[28] Nassar, Pradeep Rawat, Kelly Dorji, Sayaji Shinde and Anu Hasan were cast in other supporting roles.

[8] R. Rathnavelu, who collaborated with Sukumar on Arya (2004) and Jagadam (2007), was the film's director of photography in his return to Telugu cinema after seven years.

[37] Jakka Hari Prasad and Palnati Surya Pratap worked on the film's story, and Y. K. Arjun, Thota Srinivas and Potluri Venkateswara Rao developed the script.

[42] The second schedule began on 31 May 2012 on house and colony sets at Saradhi Studios in Hyderabad, including scenes with Babu and others.

[44] Since the actor had allotted a block of time to Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu, 1: Nenokkadine's filming was delayed.

The scene takes place during a power failure, with the headlights of motorcycles chasing the protagonist the only sources of light.

To film the scene, Rathnavelu used LED lamps and three torchlights; smoke was pumped into the air to create a backdrop.

[56] The last shooting schedule began in Bangkok in early October 2013, with action scenes supervised by Peter Hein.

[citation needed] The film's five-song soundtrack was composed by Sukumar's usual collaborator Devi Sri Prasad, with lyrics by Chandrabose.

[1] The film was Babu's third consecutive release during the Makar Sankranti festival season, following Businessman in 2012 and Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu in 2013.

[citation needed] 14 Reels Entertainment released the film in Auro 11.1 cinema audio format, supported by Barco.

It accounted for 15 percent of total promotional activity, influencing the sale of 7,500 tickets on the film's release day.

[85] Karthik Pasupulate of The Times of India gave the film three out of five stars: "The [Telugu cinema] format of six songs, five fights and loads of entertainment and melodrama makes it impossible to respectably adapt racy Hollywood styled suspense thrillers".

Kavirayani called Rathnavelu's cinematography its "saving grace", praising the lead pair's performances.

[89] Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu wrote, "How often do we get to watch a Telugu film where the audience, along with the protagonist and supporting characters, is also required to think and distinguish between events unfolding in real and imaginary spaces?"

The story has a few interesting twists and turns, in the second half too to keep the audience glued to the screen", and Sukumar "should be commended for superb attempt in choosing to make a film that has not been explored in Telugu movies".