Munna

Munna is a 2007 Telugu action drama marking the directorial debut of Vamsi Paidipally, produced by Dil Raju under Sri Venkateswara Creations. Prabhas plays the title role opposite Ileana D’Cruz, with Prakash Raj, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Rahul Dev in supporting roles, and Harris Jayaraj composed the music. It opened to mixed reviews and, according to News18, was a commercial failure. The film was re-released in cinemas on 6 March 2026 to a warmer reception.

What the story is about

Mahesh Kumar, known as Munna, is a college student with one goal: to bring down Kamalakar, better known as Khakha, the crime boss who holds the whole city in his grip. Munna’s grudge against Khakha is deeply personal, rooted in the loss of his own family. Khakha’s rival, Aatma, offers Munna an alliance, but Munna turns him down and sets out to take Khakha on in his own way, beginning a battle of wits with the gangster.

Cast

• Prabhas as Mahesh Kumar alias Munna, with Manoj Nandam as the young Munna
• Ileana D’Cruz as Nidhi Chowdary
• Prakash Raj as Kamalakar alias Khakha
• Rahul Dev as Aatma
• Kota Srinivasa Rao as Srinivasa Rao
• Sukanya as Khakha’s second wife; Sridhar Rao as Rahul and Medha Bahri as Shruti, Khakha’s children
• Tanikella Bharani as Qasim, Posani Krishna Murali as Kishan, Brahmaji as Purushottam, Venu Madhav as ‘Spoon’ Mohan and Raghu Babu as Satti Pandu
• Shriya Saran in the song “Chammakkuro”

Music

Harris Jayaraj composed six songs. The audio was launched on 23 March 2007, with Krishnam Raju, Allu Arjun, Sukumar and Bhaskar among the guests. The soundtrack version of “Manasa” is sung by Sadhana Sargam, while the film uses Mahalakshmi Iyer’s vocals; Sadhana Sargam won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Telugu for it, and Harris Jayaraj was nominated for Best Music Director. “Baga Baga” reuses the tune of his Tamil song “Karu Karu Vizhigalal”, itself based on Westlife’s “Hit You With the Real Thing”, and “Konchem Konchem” is based on a song from the delayed Tamil film Dhaam Dhoom.

Release and box office

Wikipedia gives two release dates for Munna, 26 April and 1 May 2007; our record uses 1 May, and Idlebrain’s review is dated 27 April 2007. The film was also dubbed into Tamil as Vetri Thirumagan, into Hindi as Bagawat Ek Jung and into Malayalam. News18 lists it among the Prabhas films that failed at the box office before Baahubali; Wikipedia, citing that report, puts its distributors’ share at around ₹9.7 crore. It was remade in Bangladesh as Amar Challenge, starring Shakib Khan.

What critics said

Idlebrain.com gave the film 3 out of 5, praising Prabhas’s performance, the stylish direction and the production values but criticising the narration: “There is no holistic perspective in the film.”

Awards

Besides Sadhana Sargam’s Filmfare Award for “Manasa”, cinematographer Ram Prasad won the Nandi Award for Best Cinematographer.

Where to watch Munna

We do not have a confirmed streaming platform for Munna on file. The OTT details on this page will be updated when a platform’s own listing confirms it.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Munna and the reports and reviews it cites, linked above; Wikidata; our own cast and crew records.