Sriimurali’s Bagheera skipping a Hindi release; here’s why

Bagheera, the action drama directed by Dr Suri, is releasing on October 31 in Kannada and Telugu only

Sriimurali in and as Bagheera

When Roaring Star Sriimurali’s film with Hombale Films, Bagheera, was announced it was meant to be the actor’s first pan-India release. But now that the film is ready for release, the team’s reneged on this plan, and is, instead, taking only the Kannada and the Telugu versions to theatres on October 31. Why, though, one wonders?

“There are two major Hindi releases this Deepavali – Bhool Bulaiyya 3 and Singham Again – both of which are successful and well-established franchises. There’s no way that we will get theatres in the Hindi belt with these two films at the box office. We are considering releasing the Hindi version perhaps a week later depending on the response to the film,” says director Dr Suri.

Sriimurali on Bagheera: ‘I want audiences to come out of the theatre and…’

The Tamil version has also been put for similar reasons. The big releases in Tamil for Deepavali are Amaran and Bloody Beggar, among others, while there aren’t any major films hitting theatres in the Telangana/Andhra Pradesh belt. Since Bagheera is based on a story by KGF and Salaar maker Prashant Neel, the team reckons that the Telugu version will find takers.

Bagheera, meanwhile, will be censored this week, ahead of the October 31 theatrical outing. The film’s run-time is about 2 hours and 37 minutes, much of which will be electric action, says the filmmaker. However, he adds that there are enough elements in the film to warrant family viewing. Bagheera, he reckons, is an emotion-driven origin story of a superhero.

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Sriimurali plays a cop called Vedanth, who also takes on the mantle of Bagheera to fight evil in society. What pushes him to take this course is what the film is about. The film pairs the actor with Rukmini Vasanth, who, according to the filmmaker has an impactful role in the film. Sudharani, Prakash Raj, Achyuth Kumar and Garuda Ram are also major cast members.

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