Dirty Hari

Dirty Hari is a 2020 Indian Telugu-language erotic romantic thriller film written and directed by M. S. Raju. The film was produced by Guduru Siva Rama, Guduru Sateesh Babu and Guduru Sai Puneeth under their production banner, SPJ Creations. It has Shravan Reddy, Ruhani Sharma and Simrat Kaur in lead roles. The film premiered through ATT Friday Movies App on 18 December 2020. This movie is loosely inspired from the 2005 movie Match Point.

Premise
Hari is a young man who enters into an illicit affair with an aspiring actress named Jasmine just as Vasudha falls in love with him. Post his marriage to Vasudha, Hari continues his secretive relationship with Jasmine.

Cast

 * Shravan Reddy as Hari
 * Simrat Kaur as Jasmine, an aspiring actress
 * Ruhani Sharma as Vasudha
 * Roshan Basheer as Akash
 * Ajay as ACP Ajay
 * Aziz Naser as Police Officer
 * Surekha Vani as Prameela, Vasudha's mother
 * Mahesh Achanta as friend of Hari
 * Appaji Ambarisha Darbar as Ravishankar

Development
Dirty Hari marks M. S. Raju's directorial return after his 2012 film Tuneega Tuneega. In an interview with Deccan Chronicle, Raju was quoted: "...[the bold scenes] will be shown in a poetic way. Filmmakers like Bharathan, Puttanna Kanagal, etc., have made several classical bold films in an aesthetic way. I was inspired by them and wanted to try something different." He aimed the film for an audience aged 15-35. The director said the film uses "a blend of several emotions; however, to make it more engaging to the audience we are making sure that the re-recording will aptly complement the narrative and engage the audience".

Casting
In an interview with The Hindu, Simrat Kaur stated her character to be bold and confident. She compared it to Deepika Padukone's role in 2012 Hindi film Cocktail. The auditioning team was not initially convinced with her look. For her, on screen kissing, wearing lingerie, dialogues in a husky tone was difficult.

In an interview with The Times of India, the lead actor Shravan was skeptical to sign the "bold" film. When he first heard the script, he was wary of erotic thrillers need to be handled very carefully. He described his character role as "a chess player who works part-time as a coach in a reputed chess club." In the film he plays "an ambitious guy who will go to any lengths to achieve what he wants".

Filming
Principal photography was delayed as the production house was looking for an established female lead. Filming completed in Hyderabad by end of November 2019. There are scenes in the film that were shot for 23 hours at a stretch. Simrat Kaur completed her filming portion in 20 days.

Music
The soundtrack album and original score is composed Mark K. Robin. The background score was recorded in February 2020. The first single titled "Let's Make Love" written by Krishna Kanth and sung by Manisha Eerabathini was released on 24 July 2020.

Reception
Neeshita Nyayapati of The Times of India wrote that "Dirty Hari is old wine in a new bottle for the most part, with some redeeming parts. Give it a try if erotic thrillers are your cup of tea."