Mirchi (film)

Mirchi is a 2013 Indian Telugu-language action drama film written and directed by debutant Koratala Siva, and produced by UV Creations. The film stars Prabhas, Anushka Shetty and Richa Gangopadhyay with Sathyaraj, Nadhiya Moidu, Sampath Raj, Adithya Menon, Subbaraju and Brahmanandam featuring in supporting roles. The music is composed by Devi Sri Prasad. The film follows Jai (Prabhas), who, after meeting Manasa (Richa Gangopadhyay) in Milan returns to India with the intention of reforming her violent family. However, he seems to have a mysterious connection with her family and a rather dark past.

The film was tentatively titled Vaaradhi, but was later renamed as Mirchi. It received an A (adults only) classification from the CBFC. The film opened to positive reviews and went on to be a blockbuster. It was one of the highest grossing Telugu films of the year 2013 as well as one of the highest-grossing Telugu films of all time at the time of its release, with a gross over ₹87 crore and a share of ₹47.45 crore.

The film won six Nandi Awards, including Best Feature Film (Gold), Best Actor, Best First Film of a Director, Best Villain and Best Art Director for 2013. Kailash Kher won Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer – Telugu, and Nandi Award for Best Male Playback Singer for the song Pandagala Digivacchavu. It was remade in Kannada as Maanikya (2014), in Bengali as Bindaas (2014) and in Odia as Biswanath (2022).

Plot
In Milan, a girl named Manasa runs into a man named Jai and asks him to save her from goons chasing her. Without fighting, Jai resolves the conflict, where Manasa and Jai slowly become friends. One day, Manasa asks Jai to leave her as she cannot stand the separation from him, because of her family restrictions, if their relationship develops any further. Jai then returns to India and changes the mind of Manasa's violent brother Poorna, who later invites Jai to his village, a place steeped in violence and conservatism. There, Jai's influence softens the harsh nature of most of the family, except Manasa's uncle Uma. Manasa's family embraces Jai and expresses their desire for him to marry Manasa, she confesses her love. But Jai reveals himself as the son of Deva, Manasa's family's rival, and recounts his history.

Past: Deva wants to reform the people of his village from unnecessary violence, but Jai's mother Latha did not want to stay there and leaves him with Jai. Years later, Jai becomes a successful architect and runs a leading construction company. After learning about his family, Jai visits them and falls in love with his cousin Vennela. Uma threatens Deva to give him some land, but Deva refuses and Uma criticizes him, which Jai did not appreciate. Due to this, Jai starts taking revenge on Manasa's family without revealing his identity. When a marriage proposal comes for Vennela, she calls Latha and tells her that she is in love with Jai. Everyone learns about this and decides to get them married. During the marriage, the Inspector tells Deva that the enmity is rekindling because of Jai. Afterwards, the rivals arrive and Jai starts killing them. During the fight, Latha dies, which leads Deva to banish Jai and blames her death on him.

Present: Uma challenges Jai that if he can try his way of violence and defeat his men, then Uma too would follow Jai's way of non-violence. After successfully defeating them, Uma asks Jai if he could defeat the rival's son, not knowing that it was Jai himself, and that he would marry Manasa to Jai, who later gets angry at his stubbornness and reveals his true identity. Uma starts fighting with Jai and wants to kill him, but Jai fights back and speaks about how enmity would never end if both the sides fight and peace is the only solution. Manasa's family come forward and asks Uma to consider how Jai changed their family. Uma changes once Manasa's disabled father gains ability to speak to proclaims that Jai should live. This was watched by Deva, who had just arrived there. Deva asks for Jai's forgiveness for banishing him and welcomes him back to the family. Jai reunites with Vennela, with the encouragement of Manasa.

Casting
The team finalised the casting of the two lead actresses Anushka and Richa Gangopadhyay. The father and mother characters in the film were played by Sathyaraj and Nadhiya respectively.

Filming
Principal photography for the film began on 1 December 2011 at S. V. P. National Police Academy establishment in Hyderabad. Filming resumed on 16 January 2012 at a house set at Kokapet on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The set was built and previously used for S. S. Rajamouli's Maryada Ramanna. The filming continued till end of January with action Sequences for climax episodes were canned. After one month, filming resumed at Saradhi Studios in Hyderabad. Director canned few scenes involving Supreeth, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Prabhas. In March 2012, filming was done at Ramoji Film City with lead actors. Filming resumed from 17 May in RFC where action sequences were canned on a railway station set. A new schedule began from 17 June in Hyderabad where important scenes on lead actors were shot. After the schedule, filming resumed in Pollachi where scenes on Prabhas, Anushka and Richa were canned. It was reported that the unit would move to Italy to shoot few songs on the lead actors. The film completed its Europe schedule on 14 October, where couple of songs were shot. The unit members of the film shifted to Tenkasi for shooting action scenes on 24 October. The next schedule of the film was progressed at Ramoji Film City picturising a song "Suno Senorita" on Prabhas and Richa Gangopadhyay. The Small Schedule of the movie was canned at Kutralam in Tamil Nadu on Prabhas, Anushka Shetty and on few lead Cast members. Ramajogayya Sastry visited the shooting spot of Mirchi at Annapurna Studios where a song was canned on Prabhas and Anushka Shetty with Dance Master Prem Rakshith. The visual effects of the movie was done by Light Line Entertainments in which a foreign location was creatively visualised.

Soundtrack
Devi Sri Prasad composed the Music for this film. The audio launch was held on 5 January 2013 at Ramanaidu Studios in Nanakramguda at Hyderabad. Krishnam Raju attended the audio launch function as chief guest, released the audio CD and handed over the first piece to Rajamouli. Dil Raju, Shyam Prasad Reddy released the trailers on this occasion.

Reception
AP Herald gave a review stating "Devi Sri Prasad started this year giving chart-buster songs to music lovers, this album surely stands as one of the best audio in Prabhas films."

Release
Mirchi received an A (adults only) classification from the CBFC which was initially willing to give the film a U/A (parental guidance) classification with 2-3 cuts, but the makers accepted the A certificate in order to avoid cuts. The movie released worldwide on 8 February 2013 amidst high expectations as it is the biggest outing of Prabhas. Great India Films is releasing Mirchi in 176 centers from 7 February in USA alone, which is by far one of the best and humongous release. The movie has beaten the record of Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (SVSC) and Naayak, which had released in 69 and 54 screens, respectively, in the country. Mirchi is coming up with all digital screening in USA to ensure that it will have superb quality screens across USA.

Pre-release revenues
Mirchi overseas rights sold to a leading distribution company Great India Films, USA. Some information is that Mirchi overseas rights sold for ₹ 2 Crores to Great India Films. Mirchi satellite rights were bought for inr 60000000 by Maa TV. Mirchi had a pre-release revenue up to inr 100000000 by music and satellite rights. The film's Hindi satellite rights were sold for inr 27500000.

Marketing
On 21 October 2012 the First Look posters and photos was released to the market in the view of the Prabhas Birthday on 23 October. Mirchi movie teaser was scheduled for launch on 18 November 2012. The first teaser of Mirchi movie was released in YouTube on 18 November 2012. The teaser got viral response across web and it has raised the expectations among the fans and movie buffs.

Critical reception
Mirchi received positive reviews from critics, praising the performances (particularly Prabhas & Sampath Raj), Siva’s direction, emotional weight of the story, soundtrack, background score & action set pieces. Jalapathy Gudelli gave the film 3.25 stars out of 5, concluding his review that "Mirchi showcases Prabhas in different avatar. Neat package of masala moments and Prabhas are the strengths. Mirchi is a decent entertainer and time pass flick". Jeevi gave a rating of 3.25 out of 5, commenting that "First half of Mirchi is decent. Flashback episode which occupies 100% of second half is good. Climax could have been better. The plus points of the film are Prabhas, music and all-round orientation. On a whole, Mirchi has all the ingredients of a commercial potboiler". Mahesh S Koneru gave his verdict that "At the Box Office, the film will turn in a good commercial performance", giving the film a score of 3.25/5. Way2movies also gave a rating of 3.25/5, giving the verdict that "Prabhas rocks the show in this decent yet formulaic commercial entertainer". Super good movies gave the film 3 stars in a scale of 5, reviewing that "Go and Watch Mirchi, It entertains both Class and Mass. It is a worth watch".

In the contrary, The Times of India gave the film a revised rating of 3.5/5 (from 2.5/5), recommending the film, "Watch it for Prabhas, for there isn't much of anything else that this movie has to offer, besides extreme close-ups of Richa's waistline." NDTV Movies gave the film a mixed review, stating that "apart from good direction and strong performances by lead actors, Mirchi lacks narrative power and is loosely based on an amalgamation of some old films ( sandakozhi ), which makes the film quite predictable."

Box office
The film had a 30 crore budget and collected 87 crores at the worldwide box office and the distributor share of 47.45 crores and declared as Blockbuster at the Box Office.

Remakes
John Abraham, actor turned producer has acquired the Hindi remake rights of Mirchi from the makers. John told PTI, "I saw the film and loved it a lot. We have bought the rights of the film and are quite excited to remake it here in Hindi. I would be acting in the film too. The cast and crew members are not yet finalized." From South, Kannada actor, director and producer Sudeep directed and acted in the Kannada remake of Mirchi. The film was named as Maanikya (2014). Sudeep roped V. Ravichandran for an important role in the remake. It was remade in Bengali as Bindaas (2014) with Dev, Srabanti and Sayantika.