Hari Hara Veera Mallu: Part 1 – Sword vs Spirit (2025)

Interesting facts

Hari Hara Veera Mallu: Part 1 is a 2025 Indian Telugu-language historical action-adventure film written and directed by A. M. Jyothi Krishna alongside Krish Jagarlamudi. The film stars Pawan Kalyan in the titular role, alongside Nidhhi Agerwal and Bobby Deol in prominent roles. Sathyaraj, Easwari Rao, Sunil, Nassar, Subbaraju, Ayyappa P. Sharma, Kabir Duhan Singh, Raghu Babu, Nihar Kapoor and others feature in supporting roles. It is set in the 17th century Mughal Empire and follows Veera Mallu, a celebrated warrior who is given the mission to recover the Koh-i-Noor to rescue a city from Mughal soldiers.

Production

In September 2019, producer A. M. Rathnam approached Pawan Kalyan, who had semi-retired from films to pursue a career in politics, to star in a film directed by Krish Jagarlamudi. Later in November that year, Jagarlamudi narrated Kalyan the script of a period film in which he would play a thief. Kalyan accepted the film in principle and underwent a look test in January 2020.

In September 2020, Jagarlamudi officially confirmed through his Twitter account that a period film has been in production, marking the first collaboration between Jagarlamudi and Kalyan. The film is set in 17th century with the backdrop of Mughals and Qutb Shahis. Several titles including Virupaksha, Hara Hara Mahadeva and Hari Hara Veeramallu were considered. In March 2021, the film's title is confirmed as Hari Hara Veera Mallu.

Initially marketed as a single film, in May 2024, the production house announced that the film would be released in two parts, with the first part titled as Hari Hara Veera Mallu: Part 1. The remaining portions of the film and post-production were handled by A. M. Rathnam's son, A. M. Jyothi Krishna, due to the highly delayed production owing to the pandemic, Kalyan's political commitments, and Krish's directorial commitments.

The film is produced under Rathnam's production banner Mega Surya Production. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by M. M. Keeravani. Gnana Shekar V. S. is signed as the cinematographer. Sai Madhav Burra is signed to write the film's dialogues. Ben Lock, who has supervised the graphic work in films like Aquaman, Warcraft, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is in charge of the VFX of this film.

The film was set to mark the Telugu debut of Hindi film actor Arjun Rampal, who was supposed to play the role of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. However, he was replaced by Bobby Deol as Rampal dropped out of the film due to other commitments and production delays owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Deol joined the production in December 2022.

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