Pushpa: The Rise

<p>In the late 1990s, Pushpa Raj, a self-esteemed porter, and his friend Kesava resort to for notorious smuggler Konda Reddy. Pushpa quickly rises through ranks by saving the stock from being seized by Govindappa and suggesting novel ideas to smuggle the logs bypassing checkpoints. Mangalam Srinu, Konda Reddy’s ruthless boss, entrusts him with his consignment and in turn, Konda Reddy tasks Pushpa with safeguarding the consignment from the police and shipping it. Nevertheless, Konda Reddy’s lecherous youngest brother Jaali Reddy loathes Pushpa’s increasing fame and intentionally sabotages the dispatching of consignment to let the police arrest him but Pushpa manages to save the stock once again. At a party hosted by Srinu, Pushpa discovers that the latter has been double-crossing the syndicate by embezzling the profits obtained through smuggling. He promptly informs Konda Reddy, who refuses to confront Srinu and Pushpa too agrees with him. Meanwhile, Pushpa develops feelings for Srivalli, a milk vendor and daughter of one of Konda Reddy’s henchmen. Their engagement is interrupted by Mohan, Pushpa’s eldest half-brother, who refuses to acknowledge Pushpa as his father’s son and reveals that he is illegitimate. Pushpa’s mother Parvatamma is injured in the ensuing scuffle and her agony moves Pushpa, who decides to earn a name for himself. He withdraws from working for Srinu and strikes a deal with -based smuggler Murugan, splitting profits with Konda Reddy. Elsewhere, Jaali Reddy captures Srivalli’s father upon discovering that he has been working as a mole for Govindappa and threatens her to sleep with him in exchange for sparing his life. She confides in Pushpa and confesses her feelings for him; he promptly retaliates by thrashing Jaali, who gets temporarily paralyzed. He refuses to tell his brothers about Pushpa and vows to seek vengeance himself after recuperating. However, Konda Reddy eavesdrops on a conversation between Pushpa and Kesava and discovers that the former beat Jaali. He takes Pushpa to a secluded location to kill him but they face an ambush by Srinu’s brother-in-law Mogileesu and his henchmen; Pushpa subdues them and kills Mogileesu while rescuing Konda Reddy’s younger brother Jakka Reddy, reigniting their friendship. However, Konda Reddy dies in the attack. At his funeral, Siddhappa Naidu tries to make peace between Pushpa and Srinu but ends up appointing the former to run the syndicate in Srinu’s stead, upon being apprised of his fraud. Days pass by and Pushpa establishes himself as a formidable personality. Srinu’s wife Dakshayani swears vengeance against Pushpa for Mogileesu’s death. Meanwhile, Bhanwar Singh Shekawat, a callous cop, replaces Govindappa and is approached by Pushpa days before the latter’s marriage with Srivalli. He offers Bhanwar monthly bribes and haughtily asks him to cooperate. Bhanwar arrogantly responds by humiliating Pushpa’s birth and instructs him to be meek and submissive. Pushpa subsides for the time being but on his wedding day, while partying with him, he abruptly confesses to being hurt by Shekawat’s words and forces him to strip down to his underwear. He does the same and declares that he derives his prestige from himself while Shekawat is nothing without his uniform and that even his dog wouldn’t identify him without it. He then departs to marry Srivalli while Shekawat walks home semi-clothed and shoots his dog when it barks, having failed to recognize him just as Pushpa anticipated. He angrily incinerates the money sent by Pushpa and vows vengeance. Elsewhere, Srivalli asks Pushpa if his conflict is solved but he declares that it has just begun. Post the success of (2018), Sukumar narrated a script to , with whom he previously worked in (2014). Babu, who liked the story, gave a nod to the project and was reported to start the shoot after completing ‘s project (2019). In mid-April 2018, , which collaborated with Sukumar in their previous film , officially announced the project which was tentatively titled as , thus marking their second collaboration with Babu and Sukumar. The film was expected to begin in January 2019, but, in that March, Babu walked out of Sukumar’s project, citing creative differences, and he confirmed this through . The actor instead signed his next project with titled , Whereas Sukumar approached for his next film, marking his reunion with the director after a decade since (2009); , which earlier associated with Babu and Sukumar’s project, also agreed to produce the venture. In an interview with , Sukumar stated, “I couldn’t make Mahesh Babu cool. He is very . So, the backdrop was the same but the story is different.” Sukumar described the storyline as follows: “The in the hills of Andhra is a convoluted nexus that unfurls in the course of the narrative through a -turned- .” Sukumar explored the subject of red sandalwood smuggling when he read about such incidents in years ago. Sukumar did his research and thought of developing the project as a . However, he later decided to turn the project into a feature film. He personally went for location scouting across , as the film is set in and , and the plot revolves around red sanders smuggling. Since most of the film takes place in a rural backdrop, Allu Arjun was reported to have learned the for the film, and the makers hired a team from to work on his look. forest, located in the hilly region of , serves as the backdrop for the story. Polish , who worked for (2019) was signed for the film. performed the film’s , whereas Mounika and Ramakrishna, the art directors of Sukumar’s previous film (2018) were chosen for . signed for the film’s , along with Vijay Kumar. The film’s title was officially announced on 8 April 2020, on the occasion of Allu Arjun’s birthday, and a poster was also released. Allu Arjun played the titular character Pushpa Raj, a red-sanders smuggler, and sported a bearded look for his role in the film. was cast as the film’s lead actress, with an official announcement made on ‘s birthday (8 April 2019). Mandanna in an online interaction confirmed that she will be learning a new dialect for the film, like Arjun, which is slightly based on the dialect of Chittoor. was originally offered to play the antagonist but he refused due to the and time constraints. entered talks to play the antagonist in October 2019, having worked with Sukumar in the director’s production venture (2021), and was confirmed to be part of the film in January 2020. However, in July 2020, Sethupathi left the film citing scheduling conflicts. Post Sethupathi’s exit, , , and were reported to be playing negative roles in the film, but ultimately was announced as the film’s antagonist in March 2021, thus marking his debut in . For his role in the film, Fahadh sported a bald look and a rough moustache. In April 2020, reports indicated that Kannada actor would play a pivotal role. The film’s second schedule cast in a supporting role in November 2020. Reports suggested that Sunil’s character exhibited ambiguity in the film. Despite reports of playing a crucial role, she later clarified that no one approached her for the film. However, Bharadwaj joined the film’s shooting in April 2021. confirmed his casting as Pushpa Raj’s brother in July 2021. The film had three antagonists, with Sunil and Anasuya being the antagonists in the first part, Fahadh’s character, Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat, who is the main antagonist, will only make an appearance at the end of the first part and will persist throughout its sequel Jagadeesh was cast by Sukumar after he watched his performances in the films (2019) and (2019). In an interview, revealed that he had left 15 smaller projects for working in the film. joined the production in late-November 2021. She shot for the “Oo Antava Oo Oo Antava” alongside Allu Arjun and others. On working in the song, she said that “being sexy is next level hard work”. In July 2019, the makers planned to start filming during the occasion of (7 October 2019). However, the launch event of the film took place on 30 October 2019, with a formal ceremony ( ) held in at the office of Mythri Movie Makers, with the film’s cast and crew being present at the event. In December 2019, Sukumar performed a test shoot in ‘s . After Allu Arjun’s involvement in the promotions of (2020), the makers planned to shoot the first schedule of the film in Kerala in March 2020, with Arjun joining the schedule, however, the filming was halted due to . For a 6-minute action sequence in the film, the team planned to hire action choreographers from , instead of opting for foreign technicians. Thus, the film became a project, and an initiative to provide employment to the workers from the , after some technicians faced employment crisis due to the pandemic. This sequence was reported to be made a cost of (US$710,000) and Allu Arjun trained intensively for it. In June 2020, the makers planned to resume the shoot at in , and later planned to shoot the film at . After the government permitted film shootings with a minimal crew, the makers resumed filming on 10 November 2020 in the forest in Andhra Pradesh, and completed it within 14 days. The team then moved to in December 2020 to shoot key sequences, but that was postponed to January 2021, as twelve crew members working on the film were diagnosed with COVID-19. The shooting later resumed in January 2021 and the production house tweeted that two schedules at and Maredumilli were completed within February 2021. The team also finished a schedule at Kerala in March 2021. The shooting of the film was put on hold due to restrictions following the , and Allu Arjun was also diagnosed with COVID-19 in late April. The team resumed the final leg of shooting on 6 July 2021, with a major schedule filmed in , but came to a halt on 24 July 2021 when Sukumar was diagnosed with . The filming resumed after Sukumar recovered from the disease. On 22 August 2021, Fahadh Faasil joined the shooting schedule of the film. After wrapping her portions in the Hindi film Goodbye, Rashmika joined the shoot to film her parts. In September 2021, she rejoined the shoot after a brief break. On 8 September, Allu Arjun headed to Maredumilli to film the final schedule. After a month-long production, on 4 October, the team started shooting face-off scenes between Allu Arjun and Fahadh Faasil. The song ” ” was mainly shot in , district of Tamil Nadu. Finally, a featuring was filmed in November 2021 at a specially constructed set at the and “Ey Bidda Idi Na Adda” ( ) song was filmed at the Mallikarjun Swami Temple of . After this, the film entered a phase. Speaking to the media at a promotional event of the Tamil version in , Allu Arjun said that “We had about 400–500 cars in the forest that would take us from point A to B. In some places, there were no roads and we had to create a pathway with whatever was available. The filming itself took us almost two years, that is why I say this: the effort we had put in for is equal to four films.” The of the film began in April 2021. Ten days before the release of the film, confirmed that he has dubbed for Allu Arjun for the film’s version. who has dubbed for Arjun’s previous films in , was signed to dub for Allu Arjun for the Malayalam version, and by the early-December 2021 he had completed his portions of the dubbing. lent Allu Arjun’s voice for the film’s version. has dubbed for his role in all the languages, except Hindi which was dubbed by . Sukumar’s regular collaborator composed score and soundtrack of this film. The soundtrack features five songs written by , including “Daakko Daakko Meka”, ” “, ” “, ” “, and “Eyy Bidda Idhi Naa Adda”. was released on 17 December 2021. Previously, the film was announced to release on 13 August 2021, coinciding with the weekend. In May 2021, the makers announced that the film would be releasing in two parts, with the first part coming on the originally intended release date while the second installment will be arriving in 2023. The producers released a statement saying: “The storyline and the characters took on lives of their own and grew to a span that required the movie to be released in two parts”, and the title of the film’s first part was unveiled as in August 2021. Due to a surge in the , the film’s release was rescheduled to 2021. In October 2021, the makers announced the release date as 17 December 2021. It was simultaneously released in Telugu and dubbed versions in , , and languages. Following the release, the makers deleted a controversial scene on fans’ demand as they felt it may not go well with the family audience. In the scene, Pushpa (played by Arjun) touches Srivalli’s (played by Mandanna) and has a conversation about it. It is also reported that a few more scenes were cut to reduce its runtime. In the later half of 2022, it got officially dubbed in , the production company released Russian-language trailer on YouTube on 29 November 2022 and the film was released in theatres of Russia. The film was screened at the in 2022. It was screened in the category “Blockbuster hits from around the world”. On 25 June 2021, reported that the Hindi dubbing rights were sold for (equivalent to 19 crore or US$2.3 million in 2023). Initially ‘s was reported to have acquired the distribution rights, to present and promote the Hindi version of the film in theatres. This was reported to be the third to be presented by the company after the and (2018). However, it was also reported that the film’s Hindi version will not be a simultaneous theatrical release; instead the Hindi dubbed version will be released directly on . The Hindi release faced troubles due to legal disputes between the producers and Manish Shah’s Goldmines Telefilms, which regularly distributed the Hindi versions of Allu Arjun’s previous films. In November 2021, a Hindi-version poster was later released, clarifying that the film will have a theatrical release in Hindi. In the same month it was also reported that the Goldmines Telefilms will distribute the Hindi-dub by collaborating with another production company. On 20 November 2021, it was confirmed through that the Hindi distribution would be done by . The film was distributed in by and Sri Lakshmi Movies, Swagath Enterprises in and by E4 Entertainments in . Network acquired the of the film (except the Hindi version, which was acquired by Goldmines TV), while acquired the . The film began streaming 21 days later through Amazon Prime Video on 7 January 2022, while the Hindi version began streaming from 14 January 2022. The film was also released in Japanese version on 7 August 2024. received generally mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances, action choreography, cinematography, direction, dialogues, and soundtrack but criticised the runtime, screenplay and editing. gave it 3.5/5 rating, noting it as a ” ” ( ) film and called Sukumar’s screenplay “top notch”. gave it 3 out of 5 stars and wrote “Allu Arjun walks away with the film with his strong performance. He embraces his deglamorized look and delivers a memorable performance”. gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, and called it a ” ” referring to lead actor Allu Arjun. The reviewer added that the latter half was predictable and “Sami Sami” song appears without context with the lacking punch. A reviewer from gave the film 3 out of 5 stars praising Allu’s performance and soundtrack writing, “‘ ‘ needed smarter writing for sure. But it’s still one of the most engaging mass in recent times. Devi Sri Prasad’s superb songs hit the ball out of the park”. critic Neeshita Nyayapati rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and praised Allu’s performance, action sequences, direction, cinematography and score but criticised the technical aspects while stating: ” is Allu Arjun’s show all the way. He shines in playing this rustic character that is hard on the surface but vulnerable in ways that others don’t see.” Rating the film 3/5, critic Janani K. praised Allu and Sunil’s performances but felt that Mandanna was in the film “only for the “. On technical aspects, she appreciated cinematography and editing but criticised Sukumar’s screenplay, calling it “one of the weakest screenplay of his career.” Haricharan Pudipeddi of called it “Ahaa Oho”, writing, “At three-hour-long, Pushpa manages to stay engaging for the most part and never makes sitting through the film tiring. It’s a character-driven story and Sukumar needs to be lauded for effectively establishing the character of Pushpa, whose growth couldn’t have been handled more satisfyingly.” praised the performances, action sequences and soundtrack writing “Overall, the film is a massy entertainer with a decent storyline and is custom-made for Allu Arjun’s fans.” Reviewing the Hindi dubbed version, praised Arjun’s acting and ‘s Hindi dubbing of the Pushpa character. Praising the work of cast and crew, a reviewer from opined that Sukumar should have re-thought the runtime and spent more time in the post-production. In s review, Ravi Bule felt that the story was not fresh but by the it was expressed in was new. Writing for , Sowmya Rajendran said: “Allu Arjun is immensely likable on screen and that keeps Pushpa going despite its lengthy runtime of three hours.” Also opining that the film was a bit long, Sankeertana Varma said: “Sukumar has a vision for who Pushpa is, both the character and the film.” Calling it a “mixed bag”, Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of , wrote, ” is riveting in some segments and bland in others. Allu Arjun shoulders the film, but his coming together with Sukumar should have been for a more absorbing narrative.” rated the film 2.75 out of 5 stars and wrote, “The first half is quite engaging but the second half moves at a snail pace and bores us to the core. Barring Allu Arjun’s exceptional performance, there is nothing else to watch out for in Pushpa”. Karthik Keramalu of rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote “The meat of the story doesn’t have enough protein to sustain a sequel. Sukumar could have easily wrapped up everything in this movie itself. And now we’ll have to sit through three more hours of Shekhawat versus Pushpa”. Anji Shetty of appreciated the red sandalwood backdrop and Allu’s characterisation but felt that the story was predictable and the climax with Fahadh was a disappointment. In her review for , Sahiti stated Sukumar deviated from his usual style of filmmaking and opted for flat narrative in which was one of the film’s downsides. A reviewer also felt the same, she added Mandanna’s role was very dull and director doesn’t dwell onto how ordinary kid like Pushpa grows up to a goon of his village. On its opening day, netted in India with a gross of around , and set a post-pandemic record for day one. Including the premieres, the film grossed $850,000 in the United States and obtained a worldwide gross of 74 crore on its first day. grossed over crore worldwide in its opening weekend. It netted over 107.5 crore in three days, making it the first 100 crore weekend in India post- . Overall, it is the 13th film and fourth to achieve this feat. reported that the opening would have been higher, if not for the ticket pricing issue in state. An article from analysed the losses incurred by due to low ticket prices in Andhra. ” collected a [distributor’s] share of a little more than 13 crore from the state’s 1100 screens. To put this in perspective, in , the first-day share of was pegged at over 11 crore from around 600-odd screens,” the article stated. The film’s Hindi dubbed version is commercially successful. Hindi version netted 26.50 crore in its first week, and over 62 crore by the end of third weekend. netted over crore in India in two weeks, and became the seventh South India film and the second Allu Arjun film after (2020) to do so. The film grossed crore worldwide from all versions by the end of the third weekend, and emerged as the . The scale of the dub’s commercial gains have been considered unusual, especially as the film was also available on streaming platforms during its Hindi theatrical run. Its success, as well as the popularity of other dubbed into Hindi, has been mainly attributed to the film’s mass appeal as a masala film during a time when has focused more on and has become more “toned down”. At the , won two awards – (Arjun) and (Prasad). Sukumar and the makers were accused of by the writer . In a post dated 27 August 2020, Gangadhar stated that the storyline which is based on red sandalwood smuggling, was plagiarised from his short story titled “Coolie” written for newspaper which was published two years earlier. In December 2021, a lawsuit was filed at a court in against a song in the film titled “Oo Antava Oo Oo Antava” ( ) by a men’s association. According to them, the song portrayed men as and as its lyrics seemingly mock the . They also asked for a ban on the song. One of the dialogues from the film, “Thaggede Le” (“Jhukega Nahi Saala” [I won’t back down] in Hindi version) achieved the cult status and made a huge impact in the Indian scene. Initially planned as a single film, it was later decided to make the film a two-part release. The second part, titled was released on 5 December 2024. A third part titled is also in development.</p>