Bhaje Vaayu Vegam

Bhaje Vaayu Vegam (transl. “Worship the wind’s speed”) is a 2024 Telugu action thriller directed by Prashanth Reddy and produced by UV Concepts, a subsidiary of UV Creations. Kartikeya Gummakonda and Rahul Haridas play two brothers who stumble into a political crime story, with Iswarya Menon, Tanikella Bharani, P. Ravi Shankar and Sharath Lohithaswa. It was released on 31 May 2024 to generally positive reviews and was a moderate commercial success.

What the story is about

Venkat loses his parents as a small boy and is adopted by Lakshmaiah, a farmer, who raises him alongside his own son, Raju. Lakshmaiah sends both boys to Hyderabad to follow their dreams, but the city has other ideas: Venkat ends up a bettor and Raju a valet driver, and they keep both jobs secret from their father. Then they learn that he has a life-threatening illness. In their rush to pay for his treatment, the brothers drift into the middle of a political crime, and the film follows how Venkat tries to get his brother and father out of it alive.

Cast and crew

• Kartikeya Gummakonda as Burugu Venkata Ramana “Venkat”
• Rahul Haridas as Goppula Raju, Venkat’s elder brother
• Iswarya Menon as Indu
• Tanikella Bharani as Goppula Lakshmaiah
• P. Ravi Shankar as David
• Sharath Lohithaswa as Mayor George, David’s elder brother

Director: Prashanth Reddy. Songs: Radhan. Background score: Kapil Kumar. Cinematography: R. D. Rajasekhar. Editing: Satya Giduturi. Runtime: 134 minutes.

Making of the film

The film was announced with a poster on 8 April 2024 under the working title #Kartikeya8, as Kartikeya’s eighth film as a lead. Mahesh Babu launched the first look on 12 April, Chiranjeevi unveiled the teaser on 20 May and the trailer followed on 25 May, less than a week before release. The first single, “Set Ayyindhe”, a song about a young man who believes he has found his soulmate, came out on 9 May 2024. The review site M9 found Radhan’s songs weak but said Kapil Kumar’s background score “elevates the proceedings in the second half”.

Reviews

The Times of India gave the film three out of five. The Hindu was less impressed, calling it a mishmash of ideas and themes let down by poor writing.

Box office

According to the Telugu trade site T2BLive, Bhaje Vaayu Vegam grossed over ₹8.05 crore worldwide, which it counts as a moderate success. We have not found a second outlet confirming the figure.

Where to watch Bhaje Vaayu Vegam

Netflix acquired the streaming rights, and the film premiered there on 28 June 2024, four weeks after its cinema release. That date comes from the film’s Wikipedia article rather than a platform listing, so check Netflix before you press play.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Bhaje Vaayu Vegam and the reports it cites, linked above; our own cast and crew records.