Rao Bahadur

Rao Bahadur (రావు బహదూర్) is a 2026 Telugu psychological dark comedy written, directed and edited by Venkatesh Maha, the director of C/o Kancharapalem and Uma Maheswara Ugra Roopasya. Satyadev plays the title role, an ageing aristocrat in a crumbling manor, with Vikas Muppala and Deepa Thomas. Mahesh Babu and Namrata Shirodkar presented the film under GMB Entertainment. It released on 3 July 2026 and streams on Netflix.

What the story is about

Bhuvanam Ramappa Rao Bahadur is an alcoholic, mentally unravelling aristocrat with terminal liver cancer, living out his days at the ancestral manor Bhuvanalayam. Doctors give him under four months; he outlives them, kept going by one obsession, the suspicion that his dead younger son Kusuma was not his own child. His wife Renuka has shut herself in a dark room, his elder son Lavana carries the household, and only his friend and physician Dr Srinivasa Achari still gets through to him. The film mixes suspense, dark comedy and magical realism around that household.

Cast

• Satyadev as Bhuvanam Ramappa Rao Bahadur
• Vikas Muppala as Dr Achari, Rao Bahadur’s friend
• Deepa Thomas as Renuka, his wife
• Bala Parasar as Achchamma, the house help, and Gowreesha Nookala as her daughter-in-law Suguna
• Anand as Inspector A. Jagannadhan
• Pranay Vaka as Lavana, the elder son (Venkat Showrya as the child Lavana), and Master Kiran as Kusuma, the younger son
• Kunal Kaushik and Monika Busam as Rao Bahadur’s parents; Sattanna Satish as the driver Jangaiah; Chanakya Tejas as Shivaachari, Achari’s father
• Venkatesh Maha in a cameo as a distant ancestor and founder of the Bhuvanam dynasty

How it was made

Venkatesh Maha spent five years on the script, which began in 2020 under the title Marmaanuvu as a psychological drama with horror elements intended for Rajasekhar. After changes in production and casting he rewrote it around Satyadev and renamed it Rao Bahadur, moving away from the naturalism of his earlier films toward heightened visuals and detailed design. Satyadev sat through five hours of prosthetic make-up a day across an 85-day schedule, with cinematographer Kartik Parmar and production designer Rohan Singh handling the look.

Crew and music

• Writer, director and editor: Venkatesh Maha
• Producers: Anurag Reddy, Sharath Chandra, Chinta Gopalakrishna Reddy and Eshwaran Vijayaraghavan, under A+S Movies, Srichakraas Entertainments, Mahayana Motion Pictures and Better Invest Media Vision Fund; presented by GMB Entertainment
• Music: Smaran Sai; the first single “O Sundari”, sung by Vijay Yesudas with lyrics by Rehman, came out on 15 April 2026

Release and box office

Rao Bahadur was first set for 5 June 2026 (The New Indian Express) and finally opened worldwide on 3 July 2026; our record lists a running time of 170 minutes. Wikipedia says it opened to positive reviews but ended as a commercial failure, citing a Deccan Chronicle report on collections dipping; no total figure is on record from a cited source.

Where to watch Rao Bahadur

The film began streaming on Netflix on 31 July 2026, as reported by 123telugu. The OTT box on this page shows the current status and its source.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Rao Bahadur (film) and the reports it cites; 123telugu; our own cast, crew, release and OTT records.