Happy Days tells us a story that explores the lives of eight friends through the four years of their engineering course. Each one of them joins Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology with their own set of idiosyncrasies, eccentricities, beliefs and ideals. What starts off as a journey of individuals, slowly becomes a collective one over time. They bond over as they go through bullying seniors, stringent professors, intense examinations, over the top celebrations, love, betrayal, sacrifice and every other possible emotion that an individual can experience in a college. The movie portrays the mindset of a typical engineering student which helped youth to connect with the characters involved. The film is a hyperbolic representation of a student's life. It is not meant to be taken seriously.
Sekhar Kammula held a talent search at Big FM and idlebrain.com and managed to select seven of the eight lead actors. He had to cast Tamannaah as a suitable actress was not found. The main lead of the film was selected using the internet without any direct audition. Varun Sandesh did not audition for his role. He sent his photograph by e-mail in response to idlebrain.com advertisement and subsequently sent a video clip of himself enacting certain scenes along with a song via Google Video. Damidi Kamalakar Reddy, founding Secretary and Treasurer of Chaitanya Engineering College, acted as a Professor/Lecturer in a brief cameo role.
Location
Most of the movie was shot at Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology and Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology MGIT. In fact, the opening scene between Appu and Rajesh was shot in MGIT with select scenes shot outdoors. Sekhar is an alumnus of CBIT, and he found it to be a suitable location. He had to arrange a special screening of Anand to the chairman of CBIT and its board members to convince them for an on-site shoot. Apparently, after watching Anand, the board granted their permission to shoot the film.
Sekhar Kammula cut costs of producing the film through various methods. By casting newcomers, he cut expenses to a reasonable level. As most of the shooting took place in the college, there was no need to construct sets. By partnering with Pantaloon Group, he saved another Rs 1 million in the costumes budget.
Though the film featured mostly newcomers, it became a commercial hit throughout India. It collected 2 crores in 50 days. The film received extremely positive reviews for its fresh story, cast, screenplay, and songs.
The film was dubbed into Malayalam as Happy Days and re-made in Kannada as Jolly Days and released in 2008. Both versions proved to be successful. The Tamil remake, Inidhu Inidhu, was directed by noted cinematographer K. V. Guhan under actor Prakash Raj's Duet Movies banner, which flopped at the box-office due to its lack of richness and fresh feel. The first schedule was completed in Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore and featured newcomers as protagonists. Mickey J. Meyer was retained as the music director and the project was his first venture in Tamil.
