Skanda: The Attacker

<p>Rayudu is the of who arranges his daughter’s marriage with Chinnappa. During the marriage, the son of Chief Minister of Ranjith Reddy arrives at the marriage venue as a guest and elopes with Rayudu’s daughter. This enrages Ranjith Reddy and Rayudu, where they turn into enemies. Meanwhile, Bhaskar Raju is a college student who kidnaps Rayudu’s daughter and Ranjith Reddy’s daughter, Leela (who also happens to be Bhaskar Raju’s classmate) and takes them to his hometown in Rudrarajupuram. It is revealed that the kidnappings are connected to the of the company Rudrakanti Ramakrishna Raju, who is awaiting his and was imprisoned falsely by Ranjith Reddy and Rayudu for refusing to legitimize their . It is also revealed that Ramakrishna Raju is the best friend of Bhaskar Raju’s father Manikanta Raju. Protagonist wants to prove Ramakrishna Raju’s innocence as he was forced to take the blame to protect his daughter Rudraganti Parineeta as she was held captive by Ranjith and Rayudu’s men. With no choice, Ranjith and Rayudu bail out Ramakrishna Raju from prison. Following this, the duo attacks Protagonist and his family at a temple festival, but they are saved by Protagonist’s . Eventually, Ranjith and Rayudu confess their crimes to the media. When Ramakrishna Raju inquires about Protagonist’s doppelganger name is Skanda, it is revealed that he is a notorious assassin from who is responsible for the death of Morocco-based powerful crime boss called Daniel. After learning about his history, Rayudu and Ranjith Reddy become frightened of him as Skanda walks away, indicating that his past will unfold in the sequel titled . On 18 February 2022, Srinivasaa Silver Screen announced their next film, which is directed by and would star in the lead role. It was tentatively titled as . A puja was held on 1 June 2022 in . On 5 October 2022, was announced to play the lead female role, alongside for the first time. On 3 July 2023, a glimpse was released, which revealed the title commenced on 6 October 2022, with the first schedule in in Hyderabad. The second schedule commenced in November, and included an action sequence. The third schedule began in January 2023. The schedule included a scene featuring Pothineni and Sreeleela. The soundtrack and background score is composed by , in his fourth collaboration with Pothineni after (2011), (2013), and (2015); third collaboration with Boyapati Srinu after (2016) and (2021). The first single, “Nee Chuttu Chuttu”, was released on 3 August 2023. was initially scheduled to be released on 20 October 2023 in along with dubbed versions of , , and languages, but was preponed to 28 September 2023. The satellite rights of the film acquired by in regional languages, while the Hindi version were sold to . acquired the digital streaming rights for the film and was premiered on 2 November 2023 in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada languages. Despite the financial disappointment of the original version, the film’s dubbed version surpassed 100 million views on YouTube, with over a million likes since its premiere on 17 June 2024. received mixed reviews Neeshita Nyayapati of gave 2/5 stars and wrote ” is not a film you expect logic from, but when it has only Ram and a few action sequences going for it, there’s not much left to entertain either.” Prakash Pecheti of gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote “Skanda is a regular, routine and formulaic narrative of Boyapati Srinu. It induces meaningless opium into mass audiences with a logicless story and absurd comedy and might even spoil the day of revelry during Ganesh immersion.” Srivathsan Nadadhur of gave 1/5 stars and wrote “Skanda is a film that’ll even make Boyapati’s previous dud – – seem infinitely better. There’s not much to say here, it’s just a bad day at work for the filmmaker. Ram Pothineni’s script selection woes continue and composer Thaman, who’s a natural with action entertainers, misses the bus by a wide margin.” Abhilasha Cherukuri of gave 1/5 stars and wrote ” might just be the last nail in the coffin that is the Boyapati formula”. Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of criticized the film and wrote “Skanda is bloated with no innovation in storytelling, characterisations, music or action choreography. It is so relentless in its celebration of high-decibel mass fest that you may want to keep your noise-cancelling earphones handy. Towards the end, when we learn there is going to be a part two, it sounds like a threat.” BVS Prakash of criticized the characterization and screenwriting, while terming it as a “mindless gory action saga”. The film’s ending scene showcases the tagline “Unfolding in “, indicating that story of doppelgänger will unfold in a second part. Though Boypati later said in an interview that he will not be continuing with a sequel as the film did not perform well at the box-office.</p>