Puli Meka

Puli Meka is an Indian Telugu-language crime thriller series created by Kona Venkat story by Venkatesh Kilaru and directed by K. Chakravarthy Reddy. It stars Lavanya Tripathi and Aadi Saikumar in the lead roles. The series is produced by Kona Venkat under the Kona Film Corporation (KFC) banner, with music by Praveen Lakkaraju, cinematography by Ram K Mahesh, and editing by Chota K Prasad. It follows a serial killer on a cop-killing spree which rattles the police department. The series premiered on ZEE5 on 24 February, 2023.

Cast

 * Lavanya Tripathi as Kiran Prabha IPS
 * Aadi Saikumar as Dr. Prabakar Sharma, a forensic expert and Kiran's future husband
 * Suman as Commissioner Anurag Narayan
 * Goparaju Ramana as Diwakar Sharma, Prabakar's and Karuna's father
 * Raja Chembolu as Karunakar Sharma, Prabakar's elder brother.
 * Siri Hanumanthu as Pallavi, a former chess champion and Kiran's best friend.
 * Srinivas as Panduranga Rao, Kiran's father a former IAS
 * Spandhana Palli as Swetha
 * Noel Sean as Riyaaz

Release
The trailer of the series was released by actor Ram Charan on 17 February, 2023.

Critical response
Abhilasha Cherukuri of The Indian Express in her review stated "Puli Meka leaves people with an exciting cliffhanger in the end, and the series will continue to have a winning run as long as it keeps  its stakes high and twists sharp."

Kota Saumya of Telangana Today stated "Suspenseful thrillers rely heavily on the music to create an exciting vibe but the music by Praveen Lakkaraju is nothing noteworthy. However, as far as weekend watching goes, ‘Puli Meka’ is a good bet."

Neeshita Nyayapati at The Times of India wrote "Puli Meka is an eight-episode-long series that gets off on a shaky start and finds its footing as it progresses, but it's not enough."