Maharshi

Plot

K. Rishi Kumar is announced as the CEO of Origin, a thriving company based in the United States. He brings his mother from India to live with him. To celebrate, his colleague Nidhi organises a party attended by his childhood friend Kanna, whom he has not seen for years, along with his professor Chandrashekar and college friends. The story then flashes back.

Seven years earlier, Rishi lived in a middle-class nuclear family in Hyderabad. His father Satyanarayana, a clerk at a private corporation, had fallen into debt because of his low salary, and Rishi had grown distant from him because of what he saw as his failure. Rishi gained admission to postgraduate studies at IIET, a prestigious university in Vizag, and moved there. He soon became close friends with his roommate Ravi Shankar and their classmate Pooja. Ravi, the son of a poor farmer, was under pressure to earn a well-paid job in the United States. Ajay, another classmate, envied Rishi’s academic success. Pooja introduced Rishi to her large joint family, confessed her love for him, and received a positive response. Rishi topped his first-semester exams and later encouraged Ravi, who had failed, to persevere. When Ravi eventually secured a good job during campus placements, his family and Pallavi were delighted. Meanwhile, Pooja turned down a job at Infosys to join Rishi in the US after his idea for an AI operating system was accepted by Origin.

However, Rishi ended their relationship, fearing that Pooja would become an obstacle to his career. Ravi tried to stop him, and their friendship collapsed. Later, Rishi was accused of stealing question papers, but the allegation was part of a conspiracy by Ajay to stop him from sitting the examinations. The police released him after a clue cleared his name. After finishing his studies, Rishi moved to California and rose through the ranks at Origin. While presenting a project in New York City, he learned that his father had died in his sleep. Returning to India, he realised how deeply his father had loved and missed him, leaving him full of regret.

In the present, Rishi asks Chandrashekar about Ravi and learns that Ravi was expelled after taking the blame for the theft accusation to protect him, which drove Ravi’s father to suicide. Devastated, Rishi takes leave and returns to India with his mother and Kanna, determined to bring Ravi to the USA. He finds Ravi in his village, Ramavaram, leading a solitary protest against a pipeline transport project that will destroy the village and many others. Ravi refuses to leave, even though the village representative, Pallavi’s father, tries to negotiate compensation for the land. Rishi realises Ravi will not move and decides instead to help him save the village.

Production

Development

After successfully producing three films – Munna (2007), Brindavanam (2010) and Yevadu (2014) – Dil Raju announced his fourth collaboration with Vamshi Paidipally in early 2018, under Sri Venkateswara Creations. The film was launched under the tentative title #SSMB25, before the title Maharshi was confirmed on 9 August 2018. Speaking to Hemanth Kumar of Firstpost 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".

Filming

After the script work was done for a long time, principal photography of the film began in June 2018. A brief first schedule of the filming took place in Hyderabad, Goa and Dehradun. The team next headed to the United States 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 Ramoji Film City, where a fictional village set was constructed. It was reported that the set was constructed at a cost of ₹80 million (equivalent to ₹110 million or US$1.1 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 Dubai for a short holiday. Filming was resumed in the second week of January 2019. The schedule took place in Pollachi, Tamil Nadu, 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 wrapped up on 18 April 2019.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack album and background music were composed by Devi Sri Prasad. All lyrics were written by Sri Mani. The complete soundtrack album was released on 1 May 2019 at the film's pre-release event, where various music artistes performed the songs.

Release

The film was originally scheduled to release on 25 April 2019. On 6 March 2019, Dil Raju 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 Bengaluru, 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 Tamil as Ungalukkaga Oruvan, in Kannada as Veera Maharshi and in Malayalam. The Hindi dubbed version was directly premiered on Goldmines TV channel on 16 June 2024.

Distribution

The film's pre-release business, which includes theatrical, overseas, satellite, digital, music and dubbing rights, were sold for ₹1.5 billion (equivalent to ₹1.7 billion or US$17 million in 2023).

Hindi dubbing rights of the film were sold to Goldmines Telefilms for ₹200 million (US$2.1 million). Vintage Creations (East Godavari), Adhitya Films (West Godavari), Phars Film (United Arab Emirates), Sri Venkateswara Creations (Nizam and Uttarandhra), V Movies (Guntur), Rising Star Entertainment (United Kingdom), G3 Movies (Krishna) and Swagath Enterprises (Karnataka).

Marketing

A 43-second video titled #MeetRishi 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 #JoinRishi was released on Ugadi, 6 April 2019. To promote the film, a pre-release event was held on 1 May 2019, at People's Plaza, Necklace Road, Hyderabad. The official trailer and complete audio album of the film were released at the event. Various music artistes of the soundtrack album performed songs from the film. Vijay Deverakonda and Venkatesh were the chief guests of the event.

On 16 May 2019, an interactive event titled Maharshulatho Maharshi was held in Hyderabad, in which Paidipally and Babu had an interaction/interview with the farmers. Later, a similar event titled Repati Maharshulatho Maharshi was held, in which both of them interacted with the school students of The Hyderabad Public School. Eight days after the release, an event was held at Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, to celebrate the film's success. The event, titled Maharshi Vijayotsavam, was held on 18 May 2019. In June 2019, the event Celebrating Maharshi was held at Shilpakala Vedika, Hyderabad, to celebrate the film's 50 day run in 211 cinemas across India.

Home media

The satellite rights of the film were purchased by Sun TV Network for ₹250 million (US$2.6 million), and the Telugu version was sold for Gemini TV for ₹165 million (US$1.7 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 Amazon Prime Video for ₹110 million (equivalent to ₹140 million or US$1.4 million in 2023), The digital and satellite rights of the Tamil and Kannada dubbed versions of the film were acquired by Star India. The Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam dubbed versions of the film premiered on Star Vijay, Star Suvarna and Zee Keralam respectively, on 18 October 2020.

Critical reception

Maharshi 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 The Hindu 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". The Times of India'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 Hindustan Times, 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". Sify 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..

News18 stated "Maharshi exudes a sense of comfort and happiness in the midst of the wreckage and targeting". India Today 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 Firstpost praised cinematography, performances of lead actors and film score, adding: "Maharshi 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 Deccan Chronicle too praised cinematography, performances of lead actors and film score, giving a rating of three-and-half out of five. Gabbeta Ranjith Kumar of The Indian Express 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 The News Minute gave a rating of 3 out of 5 and opined that the film is "strictly for the fans", writing that "Maharshi 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 KBC 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 Film Companion opined the same, stating, "Maharshi 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."

Box office

On opening day, the film collected a gross collection of ₹590 million (US$6.1 million) worldwide. In the Telugu-speaking states of India, it collected a gross collection of ₹333 million (US$3.5 million) and a distributors' share collection of ₹246 million (US$2.6 million). In its second day of release, the film earned a distributors' share of ₹325.7 million (US$3.4 million) in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

In the first extended weekend (Thursday release), the film entered the ₹1 Billion Club. By the end of its first weekend, the film had earned a distributors' share collection of ₹34.5 million (US$360,000) in Bengaluru. By the sixth day of its release, it had collected a gross of $1,500,000 in the United States, making it the sixth film to cross the mark in Babu's career. In seven days, it grossed over ₹80 million (US$830,000) at the United Arab Emirates box office. In 11 days, the film collected ₹727.9 million (US$7.6 million) in Telugu-speaking states (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana). By the end of its theatrical run, the film had grossed ₹2 billion (US$21 million) worldwide, while in the international market the film earned a gross collection of ₹250 million (US$2.6 million).