Babai – Abbai is a 1985 Telugu-language comedy film produced by M. Sudhakar Reddy under the Ushodhaya Movies banner and directed by Jandhyala. It stars Nandamuri Balakrishna, Anitha Reddy in the lead roles and music composed by Chakravarthy. The film is inspired by N. T. Rama Rao's old Telugu movie Vaddante Dabbu (1954), which itself was based on the English novel Brewster's Millions (1902) by George Barr McCutcheon. The novel was also adapted into a 1985 English movie Brewster's Millions which eventually was remade in Hindi as Maalamaal (1988) and in Tamil as Arunachalam (1997).

Plot

The film begins with two con artists Bala (Nandamuri Balakrishna) & Veera (Suthi Veerabhadra Rao) who meet in a very crazy situation and start living together. Out of goodwill, they call each other as Babayi-Abbayi and their livelihood is making debts and absconds from lenders. Once Bala is acquainted with a beautiful girl Krishnaveni / Krishna (Anitha Reddy), daughter of a multi-millionaire Vara Prasada Rao (Suthi Velu) and they fall in love. Being cognizant of it, Vara Prasada Rao assigns a task for Bala by allocating a huge amount of Rs.25 lakhs and asks him to spend it within 30 days. Eventually, warns him not to donate or destroy the money. At present, Bala starts the task on the guidance of Babai in various methods such as racing, gambling, making a movie, construction of the house, etc. But their income grows day by day when Bala feds-up with this money. Ultimately, he throws the money into the sea when Vara Prasada Rao arrives. At last, he affirms, the task is to study the character of Bala and he should also perceive the fruitlessness of treacherous money. Finally, the movie ends on a happy note with the marriage of Bala & Krishna.