Teja Sajja and director Prasanth Varma's 'HanuMan' turned out to be a sleeper hit in both the South and the North.
The year 2024 kicked off on a promising note for the Telugu film industry as Teja Sajja's 'HanuMan' witnessed phenomenal success. It not only garnered a positive response from both critics and audiences, it also became a box office success. The film, which was originally shot in Telugu, was dubbed in other languages as well, which made it a pan-India release.
Coming to its story, the film, set in the fictional village of Anjanadri, featured Hanumanthu (Teja Sajja) as a happy-go-lucky guy and a thief. He loves a local doctor named Meenakshi (Amritha Aiyer). But one day, when Meenakshi exposes Gajapathi (Raj Deepak Shetty) in front of the villagers, Hanumanthu enters the pictures and then he finds a precious stone, which gives him superpowers. There’s also Michael (Vijay Rai), who is obsessed with superpowers, so when HanuMan and M fight each other, it becomes a battle of good versus evil.
Director Prasanth Varma’s 'HanuMan' is the first offering in his superhero cinematic universe. When the film was announced, several people claimed that he should avoid clashing with Mahesh Babu's 'Guntur Kaaram'. However, the team decided to stick by it. When 'HanuMan' was announced, the buzz around it was low-key because it had less popular hero Teja Sajja in the lead. Also, it was director Prasanth Varma's fourth directorial venture, but the posters and promotional videos amped up the excitement of the film when the film released in theatres on January 12. Despite fighting off a big film like 'Guntur Kaaram', 'HanuMan' ended up becoming a hit in many theatres across the globe.
'HanuMan' featured a story of a battle between good and evil. Prasanth Varma incorporated elements of mythology with the superhero trope with several emotion and well choreographed action sequences.
The film also pays tribute to Telugu superstars such as Prabhas, Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan and Allu Arjun. 'HanuMan' even got the impressive VFX (visual effects) right, and despite having a limited budget, it was on point for most parts of the film. 'HanuMan' also had several applause-worthy moments with references from the Ramayana cleverly mixed into the script.
While 'HanuMan's' release date was announced several months ago, the film was released around Ayodhya's Ram Mandir's Pran Prathishta (consecration ceremony) on January 12, four days before the rituals began. With references to Ramayana in the film, 'HanuMan' was more like a celebration. In addition, during the pre-release event of 'HanuMan', Chiranjeevi stated that the makers would donate Rs 5 from each ticket to Ram Mandir.
Now moving ahead, Prasanth Varma is reportedly auditioning a big star for Hanu Man’s sequel, Jai Hanuman, and there are also reports that he is talking to Ranveer Singh for a big-budget entertainer.
