Telugu cinema in 2025: From The Girlfriend to Gopi Galla Goa Trip, a year of recalibrating

Tilting the Gaze

A still from The Girlfriend.

Undoubtedly, one of the highlights of this journey has been the gender-conscious storytelling. If filmmaker Praveen Kandregula offered his take on gender fairness and justice through his two films Subham and Paradha, Rahul Ravindran’s The Girlfriend made a strong case for the importance of the female perspective in cinema.

Through his protagonist, Rashmika Mandanna, who delivered a winning performance in The Girlfriend, Ravindran ventured into the trenches of a coercive, toxic romantic relationship and invited reflections on ideas of autonomy and agency. Kandregula, showcasing versatility, spoke about equity in a marital relationship through a quirky horror-comedy (Subham, produced by Samantha Ruth Prabhu) and then, in Paradha (starring Anupama Parameswaran, Darshana Rajendran and others), about the societal use of custom and tradition as a means to curb a woman’s freedom.

Also Read: The Girlfriend review: Rashmika Mandanna elevates the film with grace and vulnerability

The gaze was also reframed, albeit a bit differently, in Krish Jagarlamudi’s Ghaati. While the film, dealing with a woman’s rise against a barbaric drug nexus, fared middlingly because of the amount of material it took on, its lead actor, Anushka Shetty, made a comeback that saw her exude her quintessential control and grace. Vikram Prabhu, too, put on a solid show in the film.

Myths and Motifs

A still from Akhanda 2.

Tamannaah Bhatia staged a return as well with Ashok Teja’s Odela 2. The sequel was more ambitious in scale than its predecessor, but lacked a compelling story that could justify its bold cinematography and visual effects.

The horror-thriller was also one among the slew of films this year that were rooted in religious and mythic symbolism. While films set within such scriptural or ‘divine’ frameworks have been on the rise across the country in recent years, Telugu cinema learnt in 2025 that not all attempts are guaranteed easy success. Much like Odela 2, Venkat Kalyan and Abhishek Jaiswal’s Jatadhara found itself buried and lost in superstitions and spiritual journeys that couldn’t strike a chord with the Telugu audience, who clearly sought better narratives and stronger intentions from filmmakers.

A.M. Jyoti Krishna’s Hari Hara Veera Mallu came forth with a unique, fictional folk-hero who takes on Mughal emperor Aurangzeb at the peak of his powers. Yet, despite having a bona fide superstar like Pawan Kalyan and an exciting premise to its name, the film capitulated because of a weak narrative, improper staging and below-par VFX work. The Vishnu Manchu-led Kannappa, based on the tale of the revered second-century Lord Shiva devotee, couldn’t leverage its rich resources and superstar cameos and was, in turn, let down by its unimaginative world-building and incoherent storytelling.

Also Read: Hari Hara Veera Mallu review: Pawan Kalyan’s epic is a long, loud misfire

Boyapati Sreenu and Nandamuri Balakrishna rekindled their famed collaboration with Akhanda 2: Thaandavam, which saw a national disaster being solved by the powers of the Sanatana Dharma. The film opened big at the box office, but could not sustain the initial hype.

In contrast, cinematographer-turned-filmmaker Karthik Gattamneni managed to use mythology and its associated symbolism well to weave together a sprawling story, of which Mirai is proposed to be only the first piece. Mirai features Teja Sajja in the lead, and the Hanu-Man actor lent his boyish presence to good effect in the film that blends Hindu mythology, ancient history and science at once. The concoction created is punchy without much potency, but it had enough guile to impress the public and emerge as a box office winner. Manchu Manoj received praise especially for his portrayal of the film’s chief antagonist, Mahabir Lama a.k.a Black Sword.

Top Billings, Mild Returns

A still from Game Changer.

History, in its own way, also formed the core of Gowtam Tinnanuri’s Kingdom, featuring Vijay Deverakonda. What begins as an intriguing espionage story that takes the film’s lead Suri (Devarakonda) to a foreign land in search of an estranged brother, gradually branches out into a ‘destiny tale’ that is somehow connected to a tribal war in the 1920s. Tinnanuri’s world brimmed with distinctness and ambition, anchored by some solid turns from Deverakonda and Satyadev. But the writing fell short emotionally, and Kingdom ended up having a tepid theatrical run.

Seasoned filmmaker Shankar, too, met with a muted response when he arrived early in January 2025 with Game Changer. With Ram Charan and Kiara Advani as leads and Karthik Subbaraj credited for the story, the film found top billing in the lead-up to its release. However, the lacklustre approach, both in writing and execution, couldn’t match up to the hype, and Game Changer turned out to be a disappointing affair that many deemed to be a far cry from Shankar’s best work.

Another accomplished voice, in the form of Sekhar Kammula, returned to theatres with Kuberaa. Dhanush, Akkineni Nagarjuna, Rashmika Mandanna, and Jim Sarbh headlined the drama, which tackled complex ideas like capitalism and the collective lack of empathy in today’s society. While the film felt somewhat bloated and overstated, Kammula’s trademark grounded approach saved the day.

If Kuberaa was noteworthy for not being bombastic like most outings today, Sujeeth’s They Call Him OG was unabashedly all about being, looking and sounding big. The writer-director channelled his own Pawan Kalyan fan-boy to deliver an experience that celebrates the superstar actor to the fullest, but the showmanship alone couldn’t entirely compensate for the threadbare, predictable script. Thaman S’s soundtrack and the crisp execution of the action sequences, though, won a lot of praise in isolation.

Nani’s sole release this year, HIT: The Third Case, was another case of effect taking precedence over depth. The third instalment, written and directed by Sailesh Kolanu, allowed Nani a manic edge as he went about slitting throats, spilling blood, and generally making up for the ‘family-friendly’ affable image he had held on to for very long. The actor, also co-producing the film, did the role justice, but the film (a commercial hit) couldn’t capture the hearts the way his other films did.

The winner, all said and done, from this league of bigwigs is Venkatesh. The 65-year-old actor was at the top of his comedic game in his frequent collaborator Anil Ravipudi’s Sakranthiki Vasthunam, which, befitting its title, registered a big ‘victory’ during the festive Sankranthi run. Sankranthiki Vasthunam also benefited from the performances of the remaining cast, particularly that of Aishwarya Rajesh, who charmed everyone with her comic timing.

Comedy, indeed, was one of the tougher genres to crack this year. A few films clicked effortlessly, but a handful of others became tests of endurance: Vishwak Sen-led Laila, for instance, would be a film that the actor himself would want to erase from his filmography. Siddu Jonnalagadda, on the other hand, couldn’t meet the expectations set for Jack following the DJ Tillu success.

Small Bets, Big Wins

2025 would ultimately be considered the year of the smaller players and their equally big stories. It was the year of puppy romances, like the one we saw in Sai Marthand’s Little Hearts, and also of discourses around those puppy romances, such as the one featured in Ram Jagadeesh’s Court: State vs A Nobody. The former, a full-blown comedy that succeeded on the strength of a superb ensemble including Mouli Tanuj Prasanth, Shivani Nagaram, Jai Krishna, Nikhil Abburi and many other fresh talents. The latter, a gripping courtroom showdown centred on a teenage romance that is weaponised for a caste/class war, with Priyadarshi Pulikonda, Sivaji, Harsh Roshan, Sridevi Apalla and co. putting on fine performances.

If Court: State vs A Nobody discussed the misuse of the POCSO Act and highlighted how justice is more accessible for some than others, Raj R’s 23 Iravai Moodu goes a few steps further in drawing the viewer into the lived reality of social hierarchy. The film is inspired by three real incidents that occurred through the 1990s in undivided Andhra Pradesh and follows a set of people who get entangled in them for myriad reasons. 23 is as much a sincere study of the Dalit life in the modern day as it is a formal experiment that blends fiction and non-fiction; the film also boasts many lesser-known acting talents such as Teja, Tanmai, Pavan Ramesh and others (not to forget, popular actor/TV host Jhansi) who breathe authenticity into the material.

Writer duo Rohit-Sasi invoked the indie sensibility once again with the endearing coming-of-age film, Gopi Galla Goa Trip. The film is directed by Rohit (Penumatsa) and follows two young men who travel all the way from a small town in Telangana to Goa, only to experience the place that has been gentrified and mislabelled by films, new residents and travellers alike. Gopi Galla Goa Trip reclaims this identity and demystifies Goa through a filmmaking syntax that is both liberating and refreshing, and also one that could allow Telugu cinema’s newer entrants to breakaway from the industry’s incorrect predispositions about things like “scale” and “ambition”.

In the same vein, Praveena Paruchuri’s Kothapallilo Okappudu traced the nuances of human behaviour in an intimate social milieu. Bhaskar Maurya’s Muthayya gave wings to the dreams of a 70-year-old aspiring actor (portrayed brilliantly by Sudhakar Reddy) from a nondescript Telangana village. Ani IV Sasi and writer Vasanth Maringanti (of Cinema Bandi fame) cast a keen satirical eye on another community setting of the early 1990s in Uppu Kappurambu (starring Keerthi Suresh and Suhas), wherein a village’s odd customs come to be at odds with its own deep-rooted conventions.

Mahesh Babu Pachigolla’s Andhra King Taluka, starring Ram Pothineni and Bhagyashri Borse, too, travelled back in time to the early 2000s to relay a heartfelt story of a fan. Sunny Sanjay’s Anaganaga spoke of the need for alternative and more empathetic practices of teaching at schools in today’s world.

2025 might not have been bang-for-the-buck for audiences, but it was a year of looking inward and finding an identity. And in that pursuit, cinema ventured into unfamiliar, uneven terrain – yet, terrain that felt quietly promising.