''Ghani'' is a 2022 Indian

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

-language

sports drama A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme (arts), theme. It is a production in which a sport or a sports-related topic is prominently featured or is a focus o ...

film written and directed by Kiran Korrapati and produced by Renaissance Pictures and Allu Bobby Company. The film stars

Varun Tej Konidela Sai Varun Tej, better known as Varun Tej (born 19 January 1990) is an Indian actor who works in Telugu cinema. He made his acting debut in 2014 with ''Mukunda''. He received praise for featuring in Krish (director), Krish's critically ...

as the title character alongside an ensemble cast of

Upendra Upendra (Devanagari: उपेन्द्र) is an Indian masculine given name. The meaning of the Sanskrit word ' is "younger brother of Indra" and refers to either Krishna or Vishnu, who as a son of Aditi (or in the Vamana avatar) was born subs ...

Suniel Shetty Suniel Shetty (born Sunil V. Shetty; 11 August 1961) is an Indian actor, film producer, television host, and entrepreneur, primarily known for his work in Hindi cinema, with appearances in Tamil films. Nicknamed as Anna, Shetty has appeared in ...

Jagapathi Babu Veeramachaneni Jagapathi Chowdary (born 12 February 1962), professionally known as Jagapathi Babu (), is an Indian actor known for his works in Telugu cinema. He has also appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Kannada cinema, Kannada, Malayalam cine ...

, Saiee Manjrekar, and

Naveen Chandra Naveen Chandra (born 3 December 1982) is an Indian actor who works in Telugu cinema, Telugu and Tamil cinema, Tamil films. After debuting in ''Sambhavami Yuge Yuge (2006 film), Sambhavami Yuge Yuge'' (2006), he gained recognition for ''Andala Ra ...

. The film was scheduled to release on 25 February 2022 theatrically but postponed further. The film was released on 8 April 2022, and received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. Following the film's release, Tej acknowledged and apologised, accepting the film's failure at the box office through a note on social media.

Cast

Production

The film's title was unveiled in January 2021. Tej was reported to play a boxer. He was trained under

Tony Jeffries Tony David Jeffries (born Tony David Bryce; 2 March 1985) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2009 to 2011. As an amateur, he won the light-heavyweight bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics. In 2012, Jeffries was forced to re ...

, the former England boxer who won a bronze at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

. The film is produced by Sidhu Mudda and Allu Bobby.

S. Thaman Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Sivakumar (born 16 November 1983), professionally credited as Thaman S, is an Indian composer and playback singer known for his works majorly in Telugu and Tamil cinema. He is the recipient of the National Film Award f ...

is composing the music.

joined the production in February 2021. Filming took place in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

. A shooting schedule also took place at

Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; List of renamed places in India, formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the States and union territories of India, Indian stat ...

. Special sets were made for the boxing episodes of the film.

Music

The

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

and

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

of the film is composed by

. The first single from the soundtrack, "Ghani Anthem" was released on 27 October 2021. The music rights were acquired by

Aditya Music Aditya Music India Private Limited is an Indian music record label company, which owns the label Aditya Music. It produces music for the Telugu cinema industry and is headquartered at Hyderabad, Telangana. Overview The company was founded b ...

Release

''Ghani'' was released on 8 April 2022. The film was originally scheduled to release on 30 July 2021, but was later postponed due to

COVID-19 pandemic in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). As of , according to Indian government ...

. In early-August 2021, the film's release was rescheduled to November 2021, coinciding with

Deepavali Diwali (), also called Deepavali (IAST: ''Dīpāvalī'') or Deepawali (IAST: ''Dīpāwalī''), is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual ...

. In October 2021, the release date was announced as 3 December 2021. Later, it was rescheduled to release on 24 December 2021. In the early-December, the makers postponed the release indefinitely to avoid clash with other films releasing the same month. In February 2022, it was announced by the makers that the film will release on 25 February 2022 or that the film was going to be postponed to 4 March 2022 depending upon the release of other films. The film was scheduled for a theatrical release on 25 February 2022 but was postponed due to '' Bheemla Nayak'' choosing to release on that day. Non-theatrical rights including digital streaming and satellite rights of the film were acquired by Aha and

Gemini TV Gemini TV is an Indian Telugu language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Sun TV Network. It is the first satellite TV channel in Telugu. It was launched on 9 February 1995 by the Gemini Group of Hyderabad (run by Akkineni ...

respectively at a cost of combined. Prior to the film's release, ''

Telangana Today ''Telangana Today'' is a registered English-language Indian daily newspaper headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The publication focuses mainly on politics and developments in the state of Telangana. The newspaper is published by Telanga ...

'' reported that the film premiere on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

, but the film was premiered on Aha on 22 April 2022.

Reception

Box office

''Ghani'' collected a distributor's share of crore on its opening day. The film was able to collect close to in the first two days.

Critical response

The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics who severely panned the film. Neeshita Nyayapati of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Ghani is a decent sports drama, but that’s all it ends up being – decent. The film doesn’t provide anything you haven’t seen before". A reviewer from ''

Pinkvilla Pinkvilla is an Indian entertainment and lifestyle platform. As of June 2022, Pinkvilla has over 50,000,000 visitors on its website and app. Overview Pinkvilla covers entertainment and lifestyle stories. Its coverage extends to Hindi cinema, ...

'' rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "The romantic track involving the hero and Saiee Manjrekar is inexcusably cliche-ridden.The negative characters make their cheapness obvious". A reviewer from ''

Sakshi Post Sakshi () is an Indian Telugu-language media group. The group owns the daily newspaper '' Sakshi'', 24-hour news channel Sakshi TV, and associated digital ventures. Its first asset, ''Sakshi'' newspaper, was launched on 23 March 2008 by Jagati P ...

'' rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Ghani is a decent sports drama". Sowmya Rajendran of ''

The News Minute ''The News Minute'' is an Indian digital news platform based in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded by Vignesh Vellore who is also the current CEO in 2014. Apart from Karnataka, it also has bureaus in the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, ...

'' rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and stated "The film has nothing new to offer and is a half-baked sports drama full of déjà vu moments". Ram Venkat Srikar of ''

The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naidu ...

'' rated the film 1.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Ghani fails to pack a punch. I know it’s a cliched verdict, but it’s still more inventive than the film". Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' stated "A few masala moments stand out, but the sports and revenge drama is let down by insipid writing".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, tt13872244 2020s Telugu-language films 2022 drama films 2022 films Geetha Arts films Indian boxing films Indian sports drama films Films scored by Thaman S Films shot in Hyderabad, India Films shot in Visakhapatnam 2020s sports drama films Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Film productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic Films set in Visakhapatnam