''Salaar'' is an upcoming Indian Telugu-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

Prashanth Neel Prashanth Neelakantapuram (born 4 June 1980) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who primarily works in the Kannada film industry. He made his debut with the 2014 Kannada film, '' Ugramm'' and later directed the two-part film series: ' ...

, and produced by

Vijay Kiragandur Hombale Films (pronunciation: Hom-Baa-Lay) is an Indian film production company mainly known for the ''K.G.F'' franchise and blockbuster film Kantara. It was founded by Vijay Kiragandur. History Hombale Films was founded by Vijay Kiragan ...

under

Hombale Films Hombale Films (pronunciation: Hom-Baa-Lay) is an Indian film production company mainly known for the ''K.G.F'' franchise and blockbuster film Kantara. It was founded by Vijay Kiragandur. History Hombale Films was founded by Vijay Kiraga ...

. It stars

Prabhas Uppalapati Venkata Suryanarayana Prabhas Raju (born 23 October 1979), known mononymously as Prabhas (), is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. One of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinema, Prabhas has featured in '' F ...

in a dual role and as the titular charecter, along with

Prithviraj Sukumaran Prithviraj Sukumaran (born 16 October 1982) is an Indian actor, director, producer and playback singer primarily working in Malayalam cinema. He has also done Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films. He acted in more than 100 films in a variety of ...

Shruti Haasan Shruti Haasan (born 28 January 1986) is an Indian actress and playback singer who works predominantly in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi films. Born in the Haasan family, she is the daughter of actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan and actress Sarika Thakur. ...

, and

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

. The film was announced in December 2020 with principal photography beginning in January 2021 near

Godavarikhani Godavarikhani is a neighbourhood of Ramagundam city in the Indian state of Telangana. It is also called as the Coal City and City of Black Gold. The name of the city was coined by Geetla Janardhan Reddy as it is situated on the banks of the Go ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and 3 ...

. The music is composed by

Ravi Basrur Ravi Basrur is an Indian music composer, sound designer, lyricist and director who made his debut in the Kannada film industry in 2014. Career He debuted by scoring music for the film ''Ugramm''. Following his debut, Basrur composed music ...

, while the cinematography is done by

Bhuvan Gowda Bhuvan Gowda is an Indian cinematographer who works in Kannada films. He is known for his work in ''Ugramm'' (2014), '' Pushpaka Vimana'' (2017) and '' K.G.F film series''. Career Gowda began his career as a cinematographer for Prashanth Nee ...

. ''Salaar'' was originally scheduled for a theatrical release on 14 April 2022 but was delayed due to production delays owing to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. The film is scheduled to be theatrically released on 28 September 2023.

Cast

as Salaar *

as Vardharaja Mannaar *

as Aadhya *

as Raja Mannaar *

Madhu Guruswamy Madhu Guruswamy is an Indian actor. He predominantly acts in the Kannada and Telugu film industries. Early life and career After taking acting lessons at Abhinaya Tharanga, Madhu Guruswamy spent a few years in theater. He was very fon ...

* Easwari Rao * Sriya Reddy

Production

Development

The film along with its title was announced on 2 December 2020. Touted to be an

action thriller 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 lif ...

, the film marks the first collaboration between director

and Prabhas, and the first Telugu venture of Neel. On his role, Prabhas stated: "my character is extremely violent, so this is something I haven’t really done before." A few reports claimed that the film is the remake of Neel's debut film ''

Ugramm ''Ugramm'' is a 2014 Indian Kannada-language action thriller film directed by Prashanth Neel and produced under the banner Inkfinite Pictures with his brother Pradeep Neel as the executive producer. It stars Srimurali and Haripriya as the lea ...

,'' however, Neel clarified that ''Salaar'' is not a remake but an original story written for Prabhas. The film was formally launched 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, in the northern part of Southern India ...

on 16 January 2021.

is composing the music while

is the cinematographer.

Casting

Actress

was cast in a leading role in January 2021. Kannada actor Madhu Guruswamy is set to play a pivotal role. In March, actress Easwari Rao was signed to play Salaar's mother. Later in August,

joined the cast, whose character was revealed as Rajamanaar. In October 2021, actor

entered the talks to play a crucial role in the film. In March 2022, Prabhas said that Prithviraj is part of ''Salaar'' during a promotional event of his film ''

Radhe Shyam ''Radhe Shyam'' is a 2022 Indian period romantic drama film written and directed by Radha Krishna Kumar. Produced by UV Creations and T-Series, the film was shot simultaneously in Telugu and Hindi languages and stars Prabhas and Pooja Hegde ...

.'' Later in June, Prithviraj stated that he gave a nod to the script but was trying to adjust the dates to work in the film. Later in October 2022, Prithiviraj's role was confirmed and the film marks his return to Telugu cinema after 12 years, following his appearance in '' Police Police'' (2010). Sriya Reddy is also cast in a key role.

Filming

The film's shoot began on 29 January 2021 in the coal mines near the city of

. First schedule was completed by February 2021. Second schedule of the film began in August 2021 in Hyderabad. About 30% of the shoot was completed by March 2022. Filming was halted due to the release of Prabhas' ''

'' (2022) and Neel's '' K.G.F: Chapter 2'' (2022) and was planned to be resumed in May. However, Prabhas underwent a knee surgery in March during his vacation in Spain, which further delayed the shoot. In June 2022, a new schedule began at Hyderabad's

Ramoji Film City Ramoji Film City is an integrated film studio facility located in Hyderabad, India. Spread over 1,666 acres (674 ha), it is the largest film studio complex in the world and as such has been certified by the Guinness World Records. It was estab ...

with Prabhas and Haasan joining the sets. The team also shot a 20-minute long action sequence in the middle of the sea, spending about 10 crore on the scene. ''Salaar'' reportedly employed Dark Centric Theme (DCT) technology to shoot the film, making it the first Indian film to do so. As a result the film's lighting pattern and color palette would be darker in color.

Release

''Salaar'' is scheduled for a theatrical release on 28 September 2023 in

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 ...

and dubbed versions of

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

languages. The film is distributed by UV Creations in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

and

while KRG Studios in

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

state. Earlier in August 2021, it was announced that the film was going to release on 14 April 2022. The film was later postponed due to Neel and Hombale's film, '' K.G.F: Chapter 2'' which was scheduled to release on that date. In March 2022, producer

in an interview with '' Pinkvilla'' stated that the film was postponed to the second quarter (April–June) of 2023 due to production delays owing to the

. In August 2022, the release date was announced as 28 September 2023.

References

External links

* {{Prashanth Neel 2023 films Upcoming Indian films Upcoming Telugu-language films Indian action thriller films Upcoming films Films shot in Telangana Films shot in Hyderabad, India Films directed by Prashanth Neel 2020s Telugu-language films