''Saindhav'' is a 2024 Indian

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

-language

action thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

written and directed by

Sailesh Kolanu Sailesh Kolanu is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. Early life and family Sailesh was born and raised in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, since his father, Seshagiri Rao Kolanu, used to worked as a produ ...

with production by Niharika Entertainment. It stars

Venkatesh Venkatesh is a given name and family name from the Indian subcontinent derived from Venkateswara, a Hindu deity. Notable persons with the name include: * A. Venkatesh Naik (born 1936), member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India * A. Venkatesh (directo ...

Nawazuddin Siddiqui Nawazuddin Siddiqui (; born 19 May 1974) is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is an alumnus of the National School of Drama. Siddiqui's feature film debut was alongside director Prashant Bhargava in ''Patang'' (2012). He ga ...

Arya Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...

Shraddha Srinath Shraddha Rama Srinath known Professionally as Shraddha Srinath (born 29 September 1990) is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu films. She debuted with the Malayalam film '' Kohinoor'' and gained wide acclai ...

Ruhani Sharma Ruhani Sharma is an Indian actress and model who primarily works in Telugu films. She made her acting debut in with the Tamil film '' Kadaisi Bench Karthi'' (2017) and received praise for her lead role in ''Chi La Sow'' (2018), marking her Telu ...

Andrea Jeremiah Andrea Maria Jeremiah is an Indian actress, playback singer, and a musician, who works predominantly in Tamil language, Tamil and Malayalam language films. She made her acting debut in Tamil language, Tamil film ''Pachaikili Muthucharam'' (2007 ...

and Baby Sara. It released on 13 January 2024 to mixed-to-negative reviews from the critics and audience, alike. The story, performances, cinematography, and action sequences were praised. However, the direction, writing, pace, and songs were criticized. The film was a

box-office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...

Premise

Set up in the fictional port city Chandraprastha, Saindhav Koneru alias "SaiKo" has a dark past, leading a quaint family life with his daughter Gayathri and caretaker Manogna. However, SaiKo's life takes a drastic turn when Gayathri is diagnosed with

spinal muscular atrophy Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a rare neuromuscular disorder that results in the loss of motor neurons and progressive muscle wasting. It is usually diagnosed in infancy or early childhood and if left untreated it is the most common genetic ...

and requires an injection of

Zolgensma Onasemnogene abeparvovec, sold under the brand name Zolgensma, is a gene therapy medication used to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). It is used as a one-time infusion into a vein. Onasemnogene abeparvovec works by providing a new copy of ...

, which costs 17 crores. Saindhav goes back to the world of crime to extract money for Gayathri's operation and soon begins an intense battle against his past rivals, which includes a ruthless gangster Vikas Malik. Will he succeed in saving his daughter? Who will die at the end of it?

Cast

as Saindhav Koneru "SaiKO" *

as Vikas Malik *

as Manas *

as Manogya *

as Dr. Renu *

as Jasmine *

Jisshu Sengupta Jisshu Ujjwal Sengupta (born 15 March 1977) is an Indian actor, producer, television presenter. who predominantly works in Bengali, Hindi and Telugu films. Sengupta made his debut through a Bengali TV series, '' Mahaprabhu'' where he portraye ...

as Michael *

Mukesh Rishi Mukesh Rishi (born 19 April 1956) is an Indian actor and film producer who works primarily in Hindi and Telugu films. He has also appeared in Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Marathi and Tamil films. He got his first break in Hindi in 1988 and has ...

as Vishwamithra "Mithra" *

Jayaprakash V. Jayaprakash is an Indian actor and producer who works in Tamil and Telugu-language films. He ventured into film business in the early 2000s as a producer, making several films under his banner GJ Cinema and later turned actor, with Cheran's ...

as Murthy *

Getup Srinu Boddupalli Srinu, who is also known by his stage name Getup Srinu, is an Indian film actor, stand-up comedian, and television presenter. He earned the name 'Getup' for his various getups for his performances in Telugu TV comedy shows Jabarda ...

as Ramesh

Production

On 23 January 2023,

and

announced that they would be collaborating for a new film tentatively titled ''#Venky75''. The makers then on 25 January announced the film titled ''Saindhav'' by unveiling the title poster and also a glimpse of it. The film's many Portions were shot across

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

.The team then on

Ugadi Ugadi or Yugadi, also known as Samvatsarādi (), is New Year's Day according to the Hindu calendar and is celebrated in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka in India. It is festively observed in these regions on the first ...

confirmed the release date which is 22 December 2023. The film then immediately began production with the first schedule taking place in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

which was soon wrapped up. Then in April, the team shifted to

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...

for the second schedule of the film.

Release

Theatrical

The film was released on 13 January 2024, coinciding with the

Sankranti Sankranti ( sa, संक्रान्ति ''saṁkrānti or saṅkramaṇa'') means transmigration of the Sun from one zodiac to another in Indian astronomy. Each Sankranti is marked as the beginning of a month in the sidereal solar calen ...

festival along with dubbed versions in Hindi and Tamil languages.

Home media

The digital streaming and satellite rights of the film were sold to

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

and

ETV ETV may stand for: Television * e.tv, a South African terrestrial television channel * Educational Television (Hong Kong), a television series * Educational television, the use of television in education * Enhanced TV, an interactive television ap ...

respectively. The film was made available for streaming on Prime Video from 3 February 2024.

Reception

Neeshitha Nyayapati of ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Lyall ...

'' verdicted: "Sailesh Kolanu attempts to make a desi ''

John Wick ''John Wick'' is an American action thriller media franchise created by Derek Kolstad and centering around John Wick, a former hitman who is forced back into the criminal underworld he had abandoned. The franchise began with the release of ''J ...

'' with Venkatesh as Saiko, but it’s Nawazuddin’s psychotic shenanigans that engage you". Raghu Bandi of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' rated 2.75/5 stars, stating that, "This is a sort of ''John Wick''-meets-''

Drushyam ''Drushyam'' () is a 2014 Indian Telugu-language crime thriller film directed by Sripriya and jointly produced by D. Suresh Babu and Rajkumar Sethupathi. It is a remake of Jeethu Joseph 2013 Malayalam film ''Drishyam'' and features Venkatesh, ...

'' with a touch of medical thriller in a mythical city that may be inspired by

Gotham City Gotham City ( ), or simply Gotham, is a fictional city appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, best known as the home of the superhero Batman and his allies and foes. Created by writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane, the cit ...

. It seems to be the ''

Rana Naidu ''Rana Naidu'' is a 2023 Indian Hindi language action crime drama streaming television series on Netflix created and directed by Karan Anshuman and Suparn Verma. Produced by Sunder Aaron under the banner Locomotive Global Inc., it is the offic ...

'' impact that Venkatesh has chosen a family-centric action thriller as his 75th project". Avad Mohammed of ''

OTTplay HT Media is an Indian mass media company based in Delhi, India. It has holdings in print, electronic and digital media. HT Media's flagship newspaper is the ''Hindustan Times'', the second most widely read English newspaper in India after ''The ...

'' rated 2.5/5 stars and verdicted: "Venkatesh is superb and Saindhav is his one-man show as his new action-packed avatar is one of the reasons to give the film a shot". ''

123Telugu 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

'' gave it 2.75/5 stars and stated that: "Saindhav has a good concept. Venkatesh’s dashing performance and the last half an hour are the biggest assets of Saindhav". Paul Nicodemus of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' gave 3/5 stars and concluded "Saindhav is an intriguing attempt at blending emotional depth with action. It has engaging moments, and serves as a testament to the evolving nature of Telugu cinema, where traditional storytelling is being melded with contemporary cinematic sensibilities". 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 began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' verdicted "Saindhav, directed by Sailesh Kolanu and headlined by Venkatesh Daggubati, is earnest in its world building and emotional family drama ".

References

{{reflist

External links

''Saindhav''
at

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