Saaho

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Saaho (May Victory be Yours) is a 2019 Indian action thriller written and directed by Sujeeth and produced by UV Creations and T-Series. Shot simultaneously in Telugu and Hindi, it stars Prabhas in the title role, in what was also his Hindi film debut, with Shraddha Kapoor and a large ensemble cast. Critics were largely negative, although the Hindi version did well enough to make it the highest-grossing South Indian film of 2019.

Premise

The film follows two undercover officers on the trail of a mastermind who has stolen ₹2,000 crore. As they close in, they discover that the theft is tied to the death of a powerful business tycoon and to a growing gang war over control of a vast city, the fictional Waaji City. The story is built around a series of double-crosses and hidden identities, so this summary stops at the set-up.

Cast

Prabhas plays Saaho. The ensemble around him includes:

• Shraddha Kapoor, Chunky Panday and Jackie Shroff
• Arun Vijay, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Lal
• Tinnu Anand, Murali Sharma and Vennela Kishore
• Mandira Bedi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Evelyn Sharma, Devan and Prakash Belawadi

Development and casting

Sujeeth first narrated the script to Prabhas in January 2015. The search for a female lead took time: both Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt turned the film down, Bhatt saying she wanted more performance-oriented roles. Shraddha Kapoor was confirmed in August 2017.

Filming

Principal photography stretched over two years, from August 2017 to July 2019. The production shot in Hyderabad and Mumbai, in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the UAE, and in Romania, Austria and other parts of Europe. The source gives the budget as ₹325 crore in one place and ₹350 crore in another.

R. Madhi was the cinematographer and A. Sreekar Prasad edited the film.

Music

The songs were composed by several artists: Tanishk Bagchi, Guru Randhawa, Badshah and the trio Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy. Ghibran composed the background score.

Release and box office

Saaho was released worldwide on 30 August 2019 in standard and IMAX formats. According to the source, it grossed between ₹419 crore and ₹439 crore worldwide. The two versions fared very differently: the Telugu version underperformed, while the Hindi version did above-average business. Together they made Saaho the highest-grossing South Indian film of 2019 and the second-highest-grossing Indian film of that year.

Reception

Reviews were mostly negative. Critics praised the action sequences, visual effects and cinematography but faulted the script and direction.

Legacy

Saaho is considered the first instalment of the Sujeeth Cinematic Universe, which continued with They Call Him OG (2025). For Prabhas, it was the first of a series of large-scale films he led after the Baahubali films, followed by Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire (2023) and Kalki 2898 AD (2024), and like them it ranks among the highest-grossing Indian films.

Sources: Wikipedia and Wikidata.