Another History) is a 1978 Indian Telugu-language romantic tragedy film written and directed by K. Balachander.
Owing to its success in Andhra Pradesh, the film was released in the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka without being dubbed into the respective languages.
Later in 1981, Balachander remade the film in Hindi as Ek Duuje Ke Liye with Kamal Haasan reprising his role.
While being followed on her way home by a creepy bookstore clerk (who'd earlier shown her a book of nude photos), Swapna sees Baloo jogging and starts a one-way conversation with him.
One day, however, Swapna fairly misunderstands Baloo when he forcefully kisses her and is offended and breaks up with him.
Heartbroken at seeing him like that, Swapna forgives him and signals him by turning her room light off and on repeatedly.
One day when Swapna returns from college after meeting Baloo, she finds the lewd bookstore clerk at her home.
Heartbroken, Baloo makes a plan and stealthily meets Swapna during her college lunch break.
They go to a hotel for lunch and Baloo pauses the elevator halfway to spend some time with Swapna.
Despite the opposition, Baloo boldly goes and meets Swapna in her home in the presence of her parents and expresses his love for her.
During their year of separation, Baloo writes a letter every day to Swapna, in which he expresses his pain and love, but doesn't send it to her because of the contract.
In response, Swapna writes Baloo's name on every inch of her bedroom wall, making her family even more angry.
She tells the truth to Baloo and cancels their wedding, urging him to go to his beloved Swapna as their one-year contract was completed.
Sandhya's older brother hears that the wedding is cancelled and thinks that Baloo abandoned his sister.
In a drunken, angry state, he phones his criminal friend in Vizag and asks him to 'completely get rid' of Baloo.
Distraught, feeling they can't live without each other, they join hands and leap off the cliff together, a symbol of doomed love.
[2] Hassan had requested Balachander to launch him as a lead actor in Telugu cinema after the success of his Tamil-language feature, Manmadha Leelai in Andhra Pradesh.
It was made by Balachander with the sole intention of introducing Kamal Haasan as a lead actor in Telugu cinema.
[5] Kamal had entered Telugu cinema through the director's Anthuleni Katha (1976), albeit playing a supporting role.
As the film deals with cross-cultural romance, he decided to cast a new actor to play the female lead.
[6] Besides the lead actors, Madhavi who made an impact with Thoorpu Padamara was signed up to play an important role in the film.
[8] Contrary to most of the films that released during the period, Maro Charitra was shot in black and white.
[10] Randor Guy wrote the English portions of a duet picturised on Kamal and Saritha.
[15] In November 2015, Kamal noted, "Visual appeal has always gone hand-in-hand with content, since the days of Chandralekha and [Mayabazar], not just after Baahubali.
"[16] In a 2017 interview with Hindustan Times, Hassan said, "The Maro Charitra heroine, Saritha was simple-looking but a fantastic performer.
[3] The film's distributors cited that choosing a dark-skinned girl to play the female lead to be the reason.
It also marked the Bollywood debut of many South Indian artists including Kamal Haasan, Madhavi and playback singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam.
In the 1981 film, Balachander chose Rati Agnihotri over Saritha as he conceived that a Punjabi girl would be more suitable to the Hindi audience.
[24] Five years later, Ravi Yadav remade the story with the same name in Telugu with Varun Sandesh, Anita Galler and Shraddha Das.
[1] In 2017, Kamal Haasan included the film in his list of 70 favourite movies, stating "This was the original for Ek Duje Ke Liye (1981), which was also directed by K Balachander.