Tenali Rama is an Indian Hindi-language historical comedy drama based on the life of the legendary Telugu poet Tenali Ramakrishna, one of the Ashtadiggajas (or the eight honorable poets) at the court of Vijayanagara emperor Krishnadevaraya (C.E. 1509–1529), who is often cited as the greatest Vijayanagara emperor. The series premiered on Sony SAB on 11 July 2017 and went off-air on 13 November 2020.
The series was produced by Abhimanyu Singh under the banner of Contiloe Entertainment. The story took a 9-month leap in 2018 followed by a 6-year leap in August 2019 followed again by a 20-year leap and a 4-month leap in February 2020. The series' filming was halted for 4 months (from March to July) due to COVID-19 pandemic and the series was finally completed on 13 November 2020. This show was replaced by another Contiloe Entertainment show, Kaatelal & Sons.
Plot
Rama Krishna is a poor Brahmin who lived in a village called Tenali. The scene begins with the preparations of Rama's marriage with Sharada. Rama is found to be absconding from his own marriage and is later found to be dozing under a tree. Gundappa, his closest friend comes to wake him up and take him to his marriage. Rama, though he loves Sharada, is not of the opinion to get married immediately to her. One day, he comes across Tathacharya, the royal priest of Vijayanagar. After a series of events, Tathacharya believes that Rama has insulted him. He challenges Rama to enter the city of Vijayanagar. Soon, Gundappa's father faces crisis due to his land not being ploughed, Rama tricked the villagers into believing that the field contains a treasure full of gold coins within it. And overnight, the entire population of Tenali dig up Gundappa's father's field. Hence, Rama is successful in getting the field dug up and ready for seed planting. By seeing his wit, wisdom, humor, intelligence and cleverness, a Sadhu tells him to go to the nearby temple of Kaali Mata and chant her name a thousand times so that he can be successful in life. As soon as Rama gets Kaali Mata's blessings, he marries Sharada and leaves for Vijayanagar.
Over the years, he saves Vijayanagar from various dangerous opponents by using his wit, wisdom, humor, intelligence and cleverness, he becomes legendary Royal Advisor and one of the famous Ashtadiggajas Pandit Ramakrishna in Krishnadevaraya's court.
Legendary poet and royal advisor Pandit Ramakrishna in Krishnadevaraya's court uses his timely wit and intelligence to solve even the trickiest problems. His arch-rival Tathacharya (the royal priest), who wants to humiliate him, is often stumped by Ramakrishna's intelligence. Rama is very close to the King, Krishnadevaraya, often behaving and caring for each other like best friends. Soon, Sharda, Rama's wife is pregnant with their son, Bhaskar. Bhaskar is shown to have been an active part of Rama's clever ploys eve while being a baby who could just cry. Six years later, Bhaskar, Ramakrishna's son, is a naughty child and causes his father to be humiliated in the court of Krishnadevaraya multiple times, to which Rama starts punishing Bhaskar for his naughtiness. He stops spoiling Bhaskar like he used to. Later, Bhaskar stops being naughty. Then, Prince Balakumara arrives. Balakumara is Krishnadevaraya second wife, Tirumalamba's, brother. Balakumara is a spoiled prince who cares a lot about his hair. Bhaskar is in Tathacharya's home to get Tathacharya to forgive him on his father's orders. Bhaskara has to glue together a broken vase. Balakumara, who is at Tathacharya's home to learn from him, puts on the broken vase as a crown. The vase has glue on it, which causes it to be stuck to Balakumara's hair. Balakumara's hair must be pulled off his head to remove the vase. Balakumara never gets his hair back and is forever angry at Bhaskar, who is blamed for Balakumara's mistake. Bhaskar is then sent to Gurukul (school) for 20 years.
Three months later, Krishnadevaraya and Ramakrishna have a debate about whether the golden era of Vijayanagar would end. This is foreshadowing the future.
