'Strings of fury'; referring to the instrument of the same name) is a 1988 Indian Telugu-language musical-drama film directed and co-written by K. Balachander.

Produced by Nagendra Babu's Anjana Productions, the film stars Chiranjeevi alongside Tamil actor Gemini Ganesan (in his only appearance in Telugu cinema) and Shobana.

Sastry's discrimination towards the people belonging to lower castes is criticised by his son, Suryam, who believes in society's welfare and walks out for good later.

Ganesh Patro wrote the film's dialogue and worked on the script with Balachander for two months, though it was tweaked many times during the shoot.

Filmed in and around Madras, Kanchipuram, Courtallam, and Srinagar for 70 days, Rudraveena was produced on a budget of ₹80 lakh.

After talking to the locals, Satyanarayana finds that Ramapuram is well-developed and civilised due to the activities of a man named Suryam.

After learning of Satyanarayana interest in Ramapuram's development, Suryam agrees to relate the village's story in the parliament.

On his way back to home to join Sastry for a concert, Suryam helps a few victims of an accidental fire in Ramapuram.

A disturbed Suryam emphasises that society's welfare is more important than worshipping music, which makes Sastry declare Charukesa his successor as a musician.

Suryam later meets Narayana's widow and learns that the government has denied him compensation as he was drunk during working hours.

Keeping the past in mind, Charukesa asks Sastry to abandon the Bilahari raga he specialised in as a musician at his future concerts.

Satyanarayana is pleased to learn that twenty-eight villages adopted Suryam's methods and achieved successful development.

Initially reluctant, Sastry arrives shortly after and introduces himself proudly as Suryam's father instead of as a prominent carnatic musician.

After watching Sankarabharanam (1980) and Sindhu Bhairavi (1985), Babu approached Chiranjeevi's mentor K. Balachander to direct his maiden production venture.

He was also inspired by a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer's act of adopting his village in West Godavari district.

Ganesan played 'Bilahari' Ganapathi Sastry, a reputed carnatic musician specialising in songs composed using Bilahari raga.

[7] The role written for Narayana was a last minute addition by Balachander; he took inspiration from similar characters in English plays and ballads he had read.

[2] The soundtrack featured nine songs released under the Aditya Music label,[11] and is considered one of the acclaimed works of Ilaiyaraaja in Telugu cinema.

In their Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen termed Rudraveena a reformist film for Chiranjeevi which aimed to achieve "greater critical respectability" for the actor by "addressing caste in a calculated effort".

[1] Suresh Krishnamoorthy of The Hindu commented that Rudraveena showcased Chiranjeevi in a different light compared to Marana Mrudangam, a successful mainstream film by the actor released in the same year.

[20] Pulagam Chinnarayana, writing for Sakshi, called Rudraveena a sugarcoated and non-preachy take on the harsh realities of 1980s Indian society by Balachander.

[28] During his tenure as the president of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam visited Chiranjeevi's Eye & Blood Bank (CEBB) in June 2006 and expressed his appreciation for the initiative; the actor recalled the day when he ruled out the climax of Rudraveena ever happening in real life.

[15] On Chiranjeevi's 60th birthday, Indo-Asian News Service included the film in their list of underrated performances by the actor.

[30] Koratala Siva's Srimanthudu (2015) starring Mahesh Babu and Shruti Haasan was compared with Rudraveena for its similarities on a thematic level (rural development and father-son conflict).