Maharshi

<p>K. Rishi Kumar is announced as the of , a flourishing company based in . He brings his mother from India to stay with him. Nidhi, his colleague, organizes a party to surprise him, which would be attended by his close childhood friend Kanna, who had not met him for a few years; his professor Chandrashekar; and his college friends. The story flashes back. Seven years ago, Rishi belonged to a middle-class nuclear family in . His father Satyanarayana, a clerk in a private corporation, incurred debts as a result of his low earnings whose “failure” caused Rishi to be not on good terms with him. Rishi secured admission to complete his post-graduation in IIET, an esteemed university situated in , and hence had to move. Rishi, his roommate Ravi Shankar, and Pooja, all of them being classmates, became best friends. Ravi is the son of a poor farmer, whose innocent expectations about his son inspired and in reality pressured him to aim at getting a well-earning job in America. Ajay, a classmate of theirs, was envious of Rishi as the latter had surpassed him in studies, while Pooja, by introducing Rishi to her typical Indian joint family expressed her feelings for him and received a positive response. In the first semester examinations, Ravi failed, while Rishi secured the first rank. Ravi became depressed when he got two backlogs in his examinations, but Rishi encouraged him to trust himself and get inspired from his father but not feel bulldozed by it. During campus placements, Ravi secured a good job, making his father, girlfriend Pallavi, and the latter’s father (a good friend of Ravi’s father) delighted. Pooja rejected a job at to be with Rishi in the US as he had thrown an offer for his -operating system idea to , which was accepted. However, Rishi suggested that he and Pooja should put an end to their relationship mutually as he felt that she would become an obstacle to his career and said she was a burden in his heart. Hearing this, she left. When Ravi tries to apprehend Rishi to not break up with Pooja, it leads to a fallout between them. As the last semester examinations approached, Rishi was accused of stealing the question papers, which was actually a conspiracy engineered by Ajay to stop him from attempting his exams. However, upon getting a clue that proved the allegation against Rishi wrong, the police let go of him. After completing his examinations, Rishi moved to and rose through the ranks becoming a leading executive in Origin. During his presentation about his project in , Rishi learned that his father died in his sleep. Upon returning to India, he realized that his father loved him more than anything and missed him as Rishi barely spoke to him. Rishi remained distraught over not being able to talk to his father heartfully. At present, Rishi inquires Chandrashekar about Ravi, post which the former discloses that Ravi was rusticated from the university as he had taken the blame for the allegation against Rishi to protect him that caused his father to commit suicide. Devastated and guilty and upon being advised by his mother, Rishi takes a long-term leave and flies to India with her and Kanna to take Ravi with him to the USA. He meets Ravi in his native village Ramavaram, protesting alone against a project that requires the demolition of the village among several other villages, some of which have already been demolished, making it the next immediate target. While Pallavi’s father, the helpless village’s representative who does not want to leave the village, tries negotiating fair prices for the land the villagers are supposed to leave, Ravi never wants the project to take place but receives no support for his protest. Rishi, realizing that Ravi would never go with him, decides to get him what he wants. He meets the , who claims that he is helpless as one of the most influential businessmen, Vivek Mittal, is handling the project. Rishi meets Vivek, requesting him to exclude Ramavaram, but he refuses to oblige. Rishi attracts the media by setting up an office in Ramavaram to manage his schedule. Pooja, a team leader in a reputed company, is sent along with her colleague to Ramavaram to meet Rishi and negotiate a collaboration by making excuses. Rishi asks her and her colleague to stay in Ramavaram and work on her video game idea intending to reconcile, but Pooja has no intentions of doing so as she was heartbroken already and stays there under compulsion at Ravi’s house. When Rishi divulges to the media that he has set up his office for his friend, the media asks Ravi about his intentions behind refusing to go with Rishi. Ravi reveals his attachment to the native village, inspiring several other villagers to take up an initiative to join the protest, amassing great attention nationwide. Pallavi’s father, who blames Ravi for his father’s death, is now against his relationship with Pallavi. Upon learning this, Rishi talks to Pallavi’s father, making him aware of Ravi’s sacrifice, post which Pallavi’s father decides to accept her relationship with Ravi. Due to Rishi’s act, Pooja decides to reconcile with him, while several other villages join the protest. Vivek, upon sensing trouble due to the protest, arrives at Ramavaram. Out of ego, he decides to quote a higher compensation attracting a group of people amongst the protestors. As a result, Ravi is stabbed by the henchmen of a neighboring village’s head who is bribed by Vivek, but Rishi rescues Ravi from being murdered, and Ravi is hospitalized. Vivek, in an interview, accuses Rishi of demanding a share in the project from him and claims that as a result of his rejection, started making use of Ravi. He questions where Rishi was all these years and why Ravi is remembered when he is protesting. Pooja too suspects Rishi’s intentions, blames him for Ravi’s situation, and says he has not changed a bit. This breaks Rishi’s heart the most, and he decides to leave the village. However, his mother encourages him by revealing that his father was not a failure: he passed his examinations and got selected for the interview, but he was arrested for protesting in favor of suppressed farmers, leading to him being disqualified. However, he never regretted it or treated it as a failure because it was for a good cause. Rishi goes back to Ramavaram to finish what he started, and a farmer inspires him to cultivate. Rishi also leases lands to the farmers, encouraging them to get into agriculture, quoting a higher price than Vivek. Later, in a press meeting, Rishi delivers a heart-wrenching speech about how farmers are mistreated and taken advantage of leading to several suicides. The farmers realize the value of their lands and refuse to go with the pipeline project, and Pooja reconciles with Rishi after seeing his speech. Ajay, who is now a leading bank official, has realized his mistake and exposes Vivek’s fraudulent intentions to evade debts behind initiating the project and acquiring the lands. As a consequence, the project is shelved, and Vivek is arrested by the . Rishi now has to go back to the USA for his job, but he decides not to, realizing that his happiness lies in the village. He resigns as the CEO of Origin and resorts to getting into agriculture. After successfully producing three films – (2007) (2010) and (2014) – announced his fourth collaboration with in early 2018, under . The film was launched under the tentative title , before the title was confirmed on 9 August 2018. Speaking to Hemanth Kumar of about the script writing, Vamshi said “One of the toughest parts while writing the script was adding multiple layers to the protagonist’s journey. We were quite clear that we weren’t going to tell a story. It had to be like a semi-biopic. We didn’t want to treat the character like a hero right from the beginning. It’s about a character who becomes a hero in the end”. After the script work was done for a long time, of the film began in June 2018. A brief first schedule of the filming took place in , and . The team next headed to the for a two-month long schedule. After a delay in the U.S. schedule, filming in the region was completed by November 2018. Soon, the team resumed the shoot in Hyderabad at , where a fictional village set was constructed. It was reported that the set was constructed at a cost of (equivalent to 110 million or US$1.3 million in 2023). The schedule lasted until the third week of December 2018. The team then took a brief break, with Mahesh Babu and his family going to for a short holiday. Filming was resumed in the second week of January 2019. The schedule took place in , , and was completed within the same month. The next schedule took place in February 2019. In February Sri Venkateswara Creations announced that the filming would be completed by 15 March 2019, except for two songs. However, the shooting of the film was up on 18 April 2019. The film’s and were composed by . All lyrics were written by . The complete soundtrack album was released on 1 May 2019 at the film’s pre-release event, where various music artistes performed the songs. The film was originally scheduled to release on 25 April 2019. On 6 March 2019, announced that the film would be postponed due to delay in the post-production work. The film was released theatrically on 9 May 2019 in India and on 8 May 2019 across 2500 screens in the United States. In , the film was released across 400 screens, thus becoming the first Telugu film to have a high screen count, of the time. The film was also dubbed and released in 2020 in as , in as and in . The dubbed version was directly premiered on Goldmines TV channel on 16 June 2024. The film’s pre-release business, which includes theatrical, overseas, satellite, digital, music and dubbing rights, were sold for (equivalent to 1.7 billion or US$20 million in 2023). dubbing rights of the film were sold to Goldmines Telefilms for (US$2.4 million). Vintage Creations ( ), Adhitya Films ( ), Phars Film ( ), ( and ), V Movies (Guntur), Rising Star Entertainment ( ), G3 Movies ( ) and Swagath Enterprises ( ). A 43-second video titled was released on 9 August 2018, coinciding with Mahesh Babu’s birthday. On 10 March 2019, Mahesh Babu shared a few behind-the-scenes pictures on the social media. The official teaser of the film titled was released on , 6 April 2019. To promote the film, a pre-release event was held on 1 May 2019, at People’s Plaza, , . The official and complete audio album of the film were released at the event. Various music artistes of the soundtrack album performed songs from the film. and were the chief guests of the event. On 16 May 2019, an interactive event titled was held in Hyderabad, in which Paidipally and Babu had an interaction/interview with the . Later, a similar event titled was held, in which both of them interacted with the school students of . Eight days after the release, an event was held at , , to celebrate the film’s success. The event, titled , was held on 18 May 2019. In June 2019, the event was held at , Hyderabad, to celebrate the film’s 50 day run in 211 across India. The satellite rights of the film were purchased by for (US$3.0 million), and the Telugu version was sold for for (US$2.0 million). Its fifth-time premiere on the channel registered a TRP rating of 10.28. On an average, the TRP ratings of other premieres are also more than 4. The film’s digital rights were acquired by for (equivalent to 140 million or US$1.6 million in 2023), The digital and satellite rights of the Tamil and Kannada dubbed versions of the film were acquired by . The Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam dubbed versions of the film premiered on , and respectively, on 18 October 2020. received mixed reviews from the critics who praised the cast performances, action sequences, technical aspects, plot and emotional quotient while criticising the predictable and lengthy narration. Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of wrote, “At the heart of Maharshi is a story that could have been leveraged to make a compelling social drama that also traces the transformative journey of an ambitious man. But there’s a huge gap between what it could have been and what it is”. s Neeshita Nyayapati gave a rating of 3 out of 5 and wrote that “Watch it not just for Mahesh Babu and Allari Naresh’s performances but also for the story, if you don’t mind all the bells and whistles it comes with. It might not be entertaining all through, thanks to the draggy bits, but its heart is in the right place”. Writing for , Karthik Kumar opined “Maharshi is a problematic film with big ideas but it tugs at heartstrings. Take out the farming sub-plot, Maharshi would’ve been a tiresome watch in which Rishi just won’t shut up with his sermons on success”. criticised the film’s narration and duration. The reviewer felt that the film has predictable storyline, lacks any shred of originality, the second half is totally unsatisfied and the emotional core is not convincing. opined that acting performances of Babu and Naresh and the direction are the film’s positives, while Devi’s soundtrack and poor screenplay are the drawbacks of the film. stated “Maharshi exudes a sense of comfort and happiness in the midst of the wreckage and targeting”. gave 2.5 out of 5 stars stating “Maharshi has a meaty story in between several sub-plots. If only it was crisp and to the point. If only. Mahesh Babu’s Maharshi is not about a business tycoon coming back to his motherland. He has a bigger purpose here”. Hemanth Kumar of praised cinematography, performances of lead actors and film score, adding: ” is a well-intentioned drama and has some beautifully written sequences; however, it holds back on a lot of things it wants to say for so long that it makes you feel restless at times”. A critic of too praised cinematography, performances of lead actors and film score, giving a rating of three-and-half out of five. Gabbeta Ranjith Kumar of cited the film as “crowd pleaser”, giving a final verdict – “Vamshi Paidipally handles an emotionally intense subject well. But, the director could have paid more attention to Maharshi’s run-time. He could have chopped two masala songs which act as speed bumps.” Krishna Sripada of gave a rating of 3 out of 5 and opined that the film is “strictly for the fans”, writing that ” has plenty to keep the fans whistling. Naresh’s character is well-written, and it is his role that offers the pivotal turning point in the movie. Which makes you wonder why he watches a big chunk of the climax from the sidelines, as if he were there only for emotion-capture, like the relative of a contestant.” He further wrote “Prakash Raj, Rao Ramesh and Tanikella Bharani – we have almost lost the art of making our character artists important in giving more and more space to the hero. I mean, come on, even Iron Man concedes space to others. Mahesh does these roles effortlessly and one wonders if there is a pattern behind three successive social-message-based, larger-than-life movies. A change, maybe? One for the actor in him, and not just to please the fans!”. Sankeertana Varma of opined the same, stating, ” might just be a delightful movie for a Mahesh Babu fan—after all, it’s mostly him achieving this and that, and running to save people left and right—but for a fan of the movies, it offers nothing.” also criticised film’s weak narration, predictable storyline, while appreciated Vamshi’s work and DSP’s score composition. About Vamshi’s work, the critic wrote “Like Vamshi Paidipalli’s previous film , oozes with the intense desire to share something of value with the audience. The message that farmers need to be valued. And that youngsters can achieve anything they set their mind to.” Murali Krishna CH of called it “an overlong melodramatic journey,” criticising its runtime. “[T]he journey of Mahesh Babu’s Rishi is way too long and demands much patience on our part,” he added. In contrast, a critic of rated the film four out of five, writing ” exudes a sense of comfort and happiness in the midst of the wreckage and targeting.” too gave a rating of 4 out of 5, writing “The first-half with its quaint college is heartwarming without trying to be excessively cute. Mahesh Babu’s transformative performance from arrogant conceit to conscientious farmer is arguably his best to date.” On opening day, the film collected a gross collection of (US$7.0 million) worldwide. In the , it collected a gross collection of (US$3.9 million) and a distributors’ share collection of (US$2.9 million). In its second day of release, the film earned a distributors’ share of (US$3.9 million) in and . In the first extended weekend (Thursday release), the film entered the . By the end of its first weekend, the film had earned a distributors’ share collection of (US$410,000) in . By the sixth day of its release, it had collected a gross of $1,500,000 in the , making it the sixth film to cross the mark in Babu’s career. In seven days, it grossed over (US$950,000) at the box office. In 11 days, the film collected (US$8.6 million) in Telugu-speaking states ( and ). By the end of its theatrical run, the film had grossed (US$24 million) worldwide, while in the international market the film earned a gross collection of (US$3.0 million).</p>