''Pelli SandaD'' () is a 2021 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

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

film directed by debutant Gowri Ronanki under the supervision of

K. Raghavendra Rao Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao (born 23 May 1942) is an Indian filmmaker known primarily for his work in Telugu cinema, besides a few Hindi film and Kannada films. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he has directed over a hundred films ...

. Produced by Madhavi Kovelamudi,

Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni are an Indian film producer duo. They founded Arka Media Works, a film production company known for its works in Telugu cinema and Telugu Television Programs and Shows. Their notable productions include '' ...

, the film features Roshan Meka,

Sreeleela Sreeleela (born June 14, 2001) is an American and Indian actress who primarily works in Telugu cinema, with appearances in other languages. She began her career as a child artist, before making her lead debut in the 2019 film ''Kiss''. She then ...

, and Shivani Rajashekar. The film is a

spiritual sequel A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous product or work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue th ...

of the 1996 film of the same name. It marks the acting debut of Raghavendra Rao (who directed the previous film) and the Telugu debut of Sreeleela. The music was composed by M. M. Keeravani with cinematography by Sunil Kumar Nama and editing by Tammiraju. It was released on 15 October 2021.

Premise

Maya is an aspirant

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

, who expresses interest to helm the biopic of

Dronacharya award The Dronacharya Award, officially known as Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games, is sports coaching honour of the Republic of India. The award is named after Drona, often referred as "Dronacharya" or "Guru Drona", a cha ...

ee Vasishta. She threatens her father to commit suicide in case Vasishta does not authorize the project and tell his story. After several comical pleadings of her father, the reluctant Vashshta budges and goes down the memory to narrate his story of how he won over his love interest Sahasra. In 1996, Vasishta and Sahasra met at a wedding, and it is love at first sight for both of them. The main obstacle to their union is Sahasra's father Pattabhi Ramayya, the strict family patriarch who is completely against

love marriage A love marriage is one which is driven solely by the couple, with or without consent of their parents, as opposed to arranged marriage. While there is no clear definition of love marriage, the term was in common use globally during the Victorian ...

. How Vasishta convinces the headstrong father and proves that he is a worthy match for his daughter forms the rest of the story.

Cast

* Roshan Meka in a

double role A dual role (also known as a double role) refers to one actor playing two roles in a single production. Dual roles (or a larger number of roles for an actor) may be deliberately written into a script, or may instead be a choice made during produc ...

as ** Ravipati Vasishta ** Arjun ***

as old Vasishta *

as Kondaveeti Sahasra **

Deepti Bhatnagar Deepti Bhatnagar is a former Indian actress and model known for her work primarily in Hindi and Telugu language, Telugu films, along with a few appearances in other languages. She made her film debut in Ram Shastra, ''Ram Shastra'' (1995), direc ...

as old Sahasra * Shivani Rajashekar as Maya *

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, journalist and scholar who served as the first president of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independen ...

as Maya's father *

Prakash Raj Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai; 26 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Telugu language, Telugu, Tamil language, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, English language, Engl ...

as Kondaveeti Veera Venkata Pattabhi Seetharamayya, Sahasra's father *

Rao Ramesh Rao Ramesh (born 25 May 1968) is an Indian actor who works primarily in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre, theatre, and television apart from some Tamil films. He is the son of veteran actor Rao Gopal Rao. Rao Ramesh initially appeared in ''Seema ...

as Vashishta's father *

Vithika Sheru Vithika Sheru (born 2 February 1994) is an Indian actress who has appeared in Telugu language, Telugu, Tamil language, Tamil, and Kannada films. In 2019, she entered the reality TV show ''Bigg Boss Telugu 3'' as a contestant. Early life Vithi ...

as Janaki, Sahasra's sister *

Posani Krishna Murali Posani Krishna Murali (born 22 January 1958) is an Indian screenwriter, actor, director and producer who primarily works in Telugu cinema. He worked as a writer for over 150 Telugu films and directed a number of films. In 2009, he also conte ...

as Kanchukatla Anjaneyulu *

Vennela Kishore Bokkala Kishore Kumar (born 19 September 1980), known professionally as Vennela Kishore, is an Indian actor and director who works in Telugu cinema. Known for his comedic roles, he earned the moniker "Vennela" after his first feature film ''Ven ...

as Chintu, Sahasra's fiancée *

Tanikella Bharani Tanikella Bharani (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, poet and playwright who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has worked as an actor in more than 750 films, including few in Tamil, Kannada and Hindi; while he was al ...

as Vashishta's uncle *

Annapurna Annapurna (; ) is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the 10th highest mountain in the world at above sea level and is well known for the difficulty and danger involved in its as ...

as Sahasra's grandmother *

Satyam Rajesh Rajesh Babu, better known as Satyam Rajesh, is an Indian actor who primarily appears in Telugu films. He has worked in more than 350 films. Rajesh got the moniker 'Satyam' following his appearance in the 2003 film of the same name. Early lif ...

as Priest Mangalam *

Srinivasa Reddy Yaramala Srinivasa Reddy is an Indian actor known for his work in Telugu cinema. He began his career as a television anchor, hosting comedy programs before transitioning to films. Srinivasa Reddy made his acting debut with '' Ishtam'' (2001) and ...

as Maya's father's assistant *

Raghu Babu Yerra Raghu, known professionally as Raghu Babu, is a Telugu comedian. He has worked in many films in Telugu industry. He is the eldest son of comedian and character actor Giri Babu. His native place is Ravinuthala. He is known for his ...

Jhansi Jhansi ( ) is a historic city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. (Toshan) Balwant Nagar was the old name of Jhansi. It lies in the region of Bundelkhand, on the banks of the Pahuj River, in the extreme ...

as Vashishta's Mother *

Fish Venkat Fish Venkat (aka Venkat Raj) is an Indian actor who works in the Telugu film industry, playing mainly comedic and negative roles. Career Venkat was born in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. He strongly uses a Telangana dialect A dialect is a ...

as Ramayya's henchmen *

Shakalaka Shankar Seshu Shankar, better known by his stage name Shakalaka Shankar, is an Indian actor who works in Telugu films. Known for his comic roles, Shankar is one of the highest paid Telugu film comedians in 2017. Career Shankar dropped out of schoo ...

as Vashishta's uncle *

Pragathi Pragathi Mahavadi (born 16 April 1976) is an Indian film and television actress who has acted predominantly in Telugu cinema and in addition to Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam cinema. Early life Pragathi was born in Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, India. ...

as Vashishta's aunt *

Kireeti Damaraju Kireeti Damaraju is an Indian actor who works in Telugu cinema. He has learned acting and done theatre before venturing into films. He has played supporting roles in films such as '' Uyyala Jampala'' (2013), '' Yevade Subramanyam'' (2015), ''Vu ...

as Ram, Sahasra's brother-in-law *

Babu Mohan Pally Babu Mohan commonly known as Babu Mohan is an Indian actor and politician formerly from the Bharatiya Janata Party. He prominently works in Telugu films as a comedian and is a former Minister for Labour in Andhra Pradesh. He won Nandi ...

as Subbayya Babai *

Hema Hema may refer to: * Hemā (mythology), a figure from Polynesian mythology * HEMA (store), a Dutch chain of stores * Hema (supermarket) (盒马), a supermarket chain in China * Hema maps, an Australian map publisher * Hema people, an ethnic grou ...

* Bharani

Production

The film was planned in October 2020 as sequel to 1996 film ''

Pelli Sandadi ''Pelli Sandadi'' () is a 1996 Indian Telugu language, Telugu-language musical romance film directed by K. Raghavendra Rao. Produced by C. Aswini Dutt, C. Aswani Dutt and Allu Aravind on Sri Raghavendra Movie Corporation banner, the film stars ...

'' that starred Srikanth,

Ravali Ravali is an Indian actress who has appeared in Telugu language, Telugu, Tamil cinema, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi language films. She is probably best known for her performances in ''Subhakankshalu'', ''Pelli Sandadi'', ''Vinodam'' an ...

and

. K. Raghavendra Rao decided to supervise the direction of the sequel with Gowri Ronanki making her directorial debut. Incidentally Srikanth's elder son, Roshan Meka, was selected to play the male lead in the sequel. Initially, it was reported that actor

Sridevi Sridevi Kapoor (née Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan; 13 August 1963 – 24 February 2018), known mononymously as Sridevi, was an Indian actress who worked in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada language films. She is regarded as one of ...

's daughter

Khushi Kapoor Khushi Kapoor (born 5 November 2000) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. Born to actress Sridevi and producer Boney Kapoor, she made her feature film debut with the role of Betty Cooper in ''The Archies'' (2023). She has since starre ...

would be the female lead opposite Roshan, but it was not finalized. In October 2020, actress Malavika Nair was signed to pair opposite Meka, but she was later replaced by Sreeleela in January 2021. Filming was completed in July 2021, and post-production began in the same month.

Release

The film was initially planned for release in September 2021, but was 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 ...

. It was released on 15 October 2021. Later, it premiered on

ZEE5 ZEE5 or Z5 is an Indian subscription video on demand and over-the-top streaming service, owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched in India on 14 February 2018 with content in 12 languages. The ZEE5 mobile app is available on We ...

on 24 June 2022.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is composed by M. M. Keeravani and lyrics are penned by Chandrabose. "Premante Enti" first track of the soundtrack was released on 27 April 2021 by Aditya Music. "Bujjulu Bujjulu" the second song was unveiled on 23 May. Title track "Pelli SandaD" was released on 12 August 2021, and fourth track "Madhura Nagarilo" was released on 29 September 2021, along with audio album.

Reception

Thadhagath Pathi reviewing for ''

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 with 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "''Pelli SandaD'' remains a strictly watchable fare with the lead actors coming into their own. But don't expect anything fresh or remotely logical." Y Sunita Chowdhary 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 ...

'' felt that "the film is a Manmohan Desai style of ending with a battle between the divine and the evil where a young, small-built Roshan has a showdown with big-bodied men amidst spears, colour and a Hanuman idol. The film can be touted as a costly showreel for Roshan and Sree Leela". ''

Eenadu ''Eenadu'' (; ) is the largest circulated Telugu-language daily newspaper In India predominantly distributed in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It was founded by Ramoji Rao in 1974 in Visakhapatnam and has been a significant presen ...

'' stated that soundtrack and performance of lead actors are the positives, and, screenplay, story and first-half are the negatives of the film. A reviewer of ''NTV'' criticized film's screenplay and felt that it has an outdated story. They also stated that Raghavendra Rao's acting is a minus for the film.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=tt15427878, title=PellisandaD 2021 films Films scored by M. M. Keeravani Indian sequel films Indian romantic comedy films Indian romantic musical films 2020s romantic musical films Films about Indian weddings 2021 romantic comedy films 2021 directorial debut films 2020s Telugu-language films 2021 musical films