Azad () is a 2000 Indian Telugu-language patriotic action film written and directed by Thirupathisamy, and produced by C. Ashwini Dutt under Vyjayanthi Movies. It stars Nagarjuna Akkineni in the titular role alongside Shilpa Shetty and Soundarya, while the music was composed by Mani Sharma. The film completed a 100-day run in 4 centres and was a commercial success.
The film won four Nandi Awards and was remade in Kannada as Bhagath (2004) and loosely remade in Tamil as Velayudham (2011). Besides a Tamil remake, the film was dubbed into Tamil as Kurukshetram.
Anjali, a journalist, witnesses the murder of a fellow journalist who had discovered evidence against a mafia boss, Deva, and wants to sue him for his colleague's murder. Anjali is harassed by Deva when he discovers that she has the evidence. Deva is the most influential person in the region who runs Hindu Seva Samithi, but in reality, he is an undercover Islamic militant named Dawood on a mission to release their terrorist group head imprisoned by the state administration. Deva is apparently a Hindu devotee who teaches the Bhagavad Gita to every human he meets. Anjali happens to see an accident in which a bunch of Deva's henchmen die. She takes this opportunity to create a character and names it after the freedom fighter "Azad". She writes a letter that Azad has committed this assassination to end crime in the city and state. The word spreads like wildfire that there is a man called "Azad", who is the rescuer of the common man.
A man named Chandra Sekhar Azad has a widowed mother, a sister named Kaveri, and a fiancée named Kanaka Mahalakshmi to take care of. As Kaveri's marriage is fixed, Azad goes to Hyderabad, to get the five lakhs he saved in a chit fund company. There, he happens to be involved in a few bomb-blasting incidents and rescue incidents and avoids all the bomb blasts and crimes without his knowledge. People start to think that he is the "Azad". Anjali meets him and explains to him about her mission of ending crime in the state.
However, Azad is more interested in retrieving money from the chit fund company and going back to his home to marry off his sister. He refuses to enact the role and take the responsibility of the legendary character "Azad". But later on, the chit fund company turns out to be bogus, which was managed by Deva, to generate finance for the smuggling of ammunition to Pakistan. Upon seeing the victims of the chit fund company committing suicide, Azad wears the mask of 'Azad' to stop Deva's mission. All these incidents make Deva extremely frustrated, so he kills and blasts Kaveri at her wedding. Azad also learns that Deva is not a Hindu, but an Indian Mujahideen terrorist under the guise of a Hindu and is on a mission to destroy India.
Deva demands the state administration for the release of their militant leader in exchange for the lives of train passengers hijacked by Deva en route to Pakistan via Punjab, India. Saleem, an IPS officer, requests a chance to fight them off instead of exchanging lives with those who would kill more people if released. Deva provokes Saleem that, being a Muslim man, he is opposing his jihad. After Deva tries shooting Saleem with a Pakistan-made bullet, Saleem kills himself with his service revolver, just as freedom fighter Azad escaped the English bullet.
Azad now goes alone and gets badly beaten up by Deva. After Deva lashes out that he would destroy India, Azad gets up and kills Deva. He then reunites with his family.
The music was composed by Mani Sharma. Music released on SUPREME Audio Company.