The film stars Ram Charan and Tamannaah Bhatia, alongside Ajmal Ameer, Mukesh Rishi, Dev Gill, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Nassar and R. Parthiban.

The music was composed by Mani Sharma, while cinematography and editing were handled by Sameer Reddy and Gautham Raju respectively.

Principal photography commenced in June 2011 and was shot in various locations, mainly in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, apart from Sri Lanka and Bangkok.

James gives a task to Raj to make Chaitra, a medicine student and the daughter of Bellary, a dreaded crime boss, fall in love with him before New Year's Eve, in exchange for providing money for his father's operation.

At Srisailam, James rescues the couple from Bellary's henchmen, but gets stabbed by Baireddanna's son, who also kidnaps Chaitra.

Learning this, Raj decides to avenge his father's death and kills Bellary, Baireddanna and his son at Rayadurga.

Raj rescues Chaitra, who was badly injured by Bellary, and they distribute Raghupathy and Suryanarayana's land to the villagers.

R. B. Choudary, in association with N. V. Prasad and Paras Jain, produced a film titled Merupu directed by Dharani, starring Ram Charan and Kajal Aggarwal whose production began on 30 April 2010.

[1] After completing a schedule, Merupu was shelved and later, N. V. Prasad approved a script narrated by Sampath Nandi and announced in late February 2011.

Sameer Reddy was recruited as the film's cinematographer while Raju Sundaram and Shobi choreographed the songs along with Prem Rakshith.

[6] Charan left for an international trip for a complete make-over of his attire and practised different dancing steps as part of his homework for the film.

[8] Reports in early March 2011 suggested that Tamannaah Bhatia would be signed in as the female lead, who was finalised for the same in mid May 2011.

[12] R. Parthiban made a cameo appearance as Charan's father in the film, marking his Telugu debut who accepted it after Nandi explained the role's importance.

[25] A special set in Annapurna Studios was erected where the song was shot for four days after which the film's China schedule commenced from 12 November 2011.

[26] A song and a fight sequence was shot at a Bamboo forest in Anji County of Zhejiang province till the end of November 2011.

Charan and Tamannaah were filming for a song sequence on a boat when the park's deputy director Sanjay Kumar insisted that the duo should use life jackets as they were entering a risky spot.

The forest officials also restricted the entry of about 20 vehicles and 100 members into the park due to which the shoot was limited to a small portion of a song.

[32] After spraining his leg during the song shoot at Annapurna Studios, Charan was advised to take a bed rest for three to four weeks.

The film was dubbed into Hindi as Betting Raja and it was remade in Bangladesh as Honeymoon starring Bappy Chowdhury and Mahiya Mahi.

Racha debuted with an average occupancy of 90% and collected ₹8.54 crore (US$990,000) at the AP/Nizam box office setting first day record.

[58] Racha's final share for its distributors was ₹45 crore (US$5.2 million)[59] Sify called the film a "paisa vasool" one and stated "Both, actor Ram Charan and his director Sampath Nandi play a safe game by following the same pattern of earlier mass-masala movies.

"[60] Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu stated "Within the framework of pleasing the actor's fan clubs, the film works.

[64] Radhika Rajamani of Rediff.com gave 2 out of 5 stars and criticised the film for its predictability and stereotypical pattern and stated that Racha is a potboiler meant for the masses and not for a discerning audience.

[65] Praising the lead pair's performances by calling them as one of the reasons to watch this film, IndiaGlitz opined that at the end, Racha means "telling an old story with lot's [sic] of bells and whistles — over the top dialogues, destructive fights, falling back on the poor, etc.

In a press meet, Tammanaah showcased the axe to the media and the proceeds of its sale were announced to be used to educate poor children in Telugu cinema.