Mrugaraju

Mrugaraju (“King of the Beasts”) is a 2001 Telugu action adventure directed by Gunasekhar, in which Chiranjeevi plays a hunter called in to stop a man-eating lion. Simran, Sanghavi and Nagendra Babu co-star, with music by Mani Sharma. Its core plot comes from the 1996 American film The Ghost and the Darkness. Released on 11 January 2001, it was panned by critics and became a box-office bomb.

What the story is about

Near the forest village of Adavipalli, a government railway bridge is being built between two hills in an area rich in ore, but a man-eating lion has been killing the workers and has claimed the chief engineer. The railway sends Aishwarya to take charge and restart the work, and Raju, a famous hunter from Adavipalli, is brought in to deal with the lion. Raju also has to contend with a corrupt forest ranger and a local smuggler, and a long flashback explains the history between him and Aishwarya.

Cast and crew

• Chiranjeevi as Raju
• Simran as Aishwarya
• Sanghavi as Sivangi
• Nagendra Babu as Appanna Dora
• Prakash Raj as Valmiki Dora
• Brahmanandam as Ibraheem
• Rami Reddy as a smuggler and Raja Ravindra as Vicky
• Rambha in a guest role in the song “Ramayya Padaletti”

Director: Gunasekhar. Producer: K. Devi Varaprasad (Devi Films). Writers: Yandamuri Veerendranath and Satyanand, from a storyline developed with Nagendra Babu. Music: Mani Sharma. Runtime: 147 minutes.

Making the film

Jayanth C. Paranjee was first signed to direct for Devi Films in December 1998 and worked out the film’s backdrop, but he moved to Ravoyi Chandamama (1999) and Gunasekhar took over. A flashback was added to the script for emotional weight. According to Idlebrain, the film was made on a budget of ₹15 crore, with ₹75 lakh spent on a single song set and ₹30 lakh on recreating Amsterdam at Annapurna Studios. Lion scenes were shot in South Africa with visual effects by Pentamedia Graphics, and the forest scenes at Talakona and in Johannesburg.

Reviews

Critics were unimpressed. Idlebrain said Gunasekhar failed to stitch the scenes together and aped the Hollywood original without its effects finesse, and Telugu Cinema called it “a bad imitation” of the Oscar-winning film. Full Hyderabad praised the “phenomenal photography” but found the story contrived and the flashback endless. Indiainfo thought both leads were good but that the lion “stole the show”, calling the film “a time killer”.

Box office

The film was a box-office bomb; Wikipedia’s account of its failure cites a later Telugucinema.com interview with producer Devi Vara Prasad. It was dubbed into Tamil as Vettaikaran and into Hindi as Rakshak – The Protector.

Where to watch Mrugaraju

Mrugaraju is listed on Aha (checked against the platform’s own listing). Availability can vary by region and subscription.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Mrugaraju and the reviews and reports it cites, linked above; Aha’s listing; our own cast and crew records.