‘Hari Hara Veera Mallu’ Box-Office: All Eyes On Pawan Kalyan’s Adventure Epic 'Comeback'

Pawan Kalyan’s Hari Hara Veera Mallu is not only the Telugu superstar’s first film in two years; it’s also the actor’s first release after he took over as the Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh last year. A lot is riding on the period film, which will see the actor’s turn as Veera Mallu, a warrior tasked with a mission in the Mughal era. The film, which has gone through several delays and was made on a budget of ₹250 crore, is expected to revive the Telugu box-office. 

Balgovind Raj Tadla, proprietor of the popular Sudarshan 35mm theatre in Hyderabad, thinks Hari Hara Veera Mallu has all the capabilities to become a hit. “The audience has become very sharp and intelligent. If the movie is good, they will take it tenfold,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter India. “But the market is such that if a film is not good, it'll not be appreciated. That's how the market has changed after COVID-19, in a very analogous way,” he says, adding that the difference could be noticed in the past five years.

Pawan Kalyan, whose last hits were Trivikram Srinivas’ Bheemla Nayak (2022), the remake of Malayalam film Ayyappanum Koshiyum (2020), and Vakeel Saab (2021), the remake of Amitabh Bachchan’s Pink (2016), has always had a mind-boggling response from the crowd, Tadla adds. "All the industry experts are always pleasantly surprised as to how he manages to attract so many audiences. His response is thoroughly different, and his comeback is most awaited.”

Trade expert Sreedhar Pillai thinks the Friday release will be a major litmus test for the actor-politician. “It's been a long time since we had a Pawan Kalyan film. AM Rathnam is a well-trusted producer who has been making films in Tamil and Telugu, so we’ll have to see how it performs,” he tells THR India. The Telugu industry badly needs a hit, says Pillai. 

While small films such as Court: State V A Nobody, Mad Square, and Thandel did reasonable numbers at the box-office, Telugu cinema hasn’t had a big tentpole grosser this year apart from Daggubati Venkatesh's Sankranthiki Vasthunam, which raked in ₹187 crore at the Indian box office. “At a ground level, things are changing. Small films in Telugu are doing reasonably well. The big films are all by the stars and have been in production for a year or two, and they are looking at a pan-India market. If you're making a film on a budget, Telugu is one of the biggest markets in south India,” Pillai adds. One also has to be mindful of the satellite and digital market, which has crashed for all movies in India, he reminds. “You have to first find a buyer for digital and satellite. These two things have to be worked out before you think of coming into big production.”

Tadla adds that any film must have an entertainment quotient to bring in the audience. "If you have seen Court, Balagam and also Sankranthiki Vasthunam, all of them had a nice entertainment component. Now, I don't want to comment on the makers, but like Vidya Balan says in Dirty Picture, whatever you want to cook, cook it in an entertaining dish. Movies like Annamayya (Nagarjuna’s 1997 film on the 15th-century saint-poet Annamacharya) had their comedy track. I am hopeful that HHVM will have a similar element to make a winning difference.”

Directed by Jyothi Krisna and Krish Jagarlamudi, and presented by AM Rathnam, the July 24 release also co-stars Nidhhi Agerwal and Bobby Deol in key roles.