Red

Red is a 2021 Telugu crime thriller directed by Kishore Tirumala and produced by Sravanthi Ravi Kishore’s Sri Sravanthi Movies, a remake of the Tamil film Thadam (2019). Ram Pothineni plays a double role, with Nivetha Pethuraj, Malvika Sharma and Amritha Aiyer. Mani Sharma composed the music, Sameer Reddy shot it and Junaid Siddiqui edited it. After a pandemic delay, it was released for Sankranti on 14 January 2021.

What the story is about

Siddharth is an IIT-educated civil engineer with a successful construction firm, in love with Mahima. Aditya, who looks exactly like him, is a gambler and con man who cheats people with his sidekick Vema, and is loved by Gayathri, who does not at first know what he really is.

One night a man named Akash is stabbed to death in his home. A selfie taken by a couple nearby shows a face at the scene, and it could be either Siddharth or Aditya. Both are brought in and questioned separately: Siddharth by a circle inspector, Nagendra, who has an old grudge against him, and Aditya by sub-inspector Yamini. Each has a story, and the police have to work out which of the two men, if either, is the killer.

Cast and crew

• Ram Pothineni as Siddharth and Aditya
• Nivetha Pethuraj as SI Yamini
• Malvika Sharma as Mahima
• Amritha Aiyer as Gayathri

Director: Kishore Tirumala. Producer: Sravanthi Ravi Kishore (Sri Sravanthi Movies). Music: Mani Sharma. Cinematography: Sameer Reddy. Editing: Junaid Siddiqui. Action: Peter Hein. Runtime: 146 minutes.

Making the film

Sri Sravanthi Movies bought the remake rights to Thadam on 13 March 2019, and the film became Ram’s third with Kishore Tirumala. Nivetha Pethuraj joined in July 2019, and the title was announced on 28 October 2019. Launched on 30 October with Puri Jagannadh and Charmme Kaur clapping the first shot, filming began in November 2019, mostly in Hyderabad; two songs were shot in Florence, Tuscany and the Dolomites in February 2020, and photography wrapped in March 2020. The first song, “Nuvve Nuvve”, came out on 6 March 2020.

Red was originally due on 9 April 2020. Despite streaming offers during the pandemic, Ram said the makers held it back for cinemas because the film “was meant only for the big screens”. It was released alongside a Kannada dubbed version, Clue, with dubs in several other languages planned.

Reviews and box office

Reviews were mixed. Neeshita Nyayapati of the Times of India gave it 2.5 out of 5, saying it “has its moments” and a brilliant cast but is let down by “a draggy screenplay”. Hemanth Kumar of Firstpost, also at 2.5, felt “the problem with RED is that it explains too much”, and Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu found it “intriguing in parts” but inconsistent. Commercially it did well: T2BLive reported a worldwide gross of ₹35.64 crore.

Where to watch Red

Red began streaming on Netflix and Sun NXT on 25 February 2021, 42 days after its cinema release, according to Wikipedia. We have not checked current listings, so availability may differ.

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