Agentis an 2023 Indian Telugu-language action spy film directed by Surender Reddy, written by Vakkantham Vamsi and produced by Anil Sunkara and Rambrahmam Sunkara under AK Entertainments. The film stars Mammootty, Akhil Akkineni, Dino Morea, Sakshi Vaidya and Vikramjeet Virk. The film marks the debut of Vaidya and Morea in Telugu cinema.[5]
The film was announced in September 2020. Filming took place in Hyderabad, Budapest, Visakhapatnam and Manali. The release was deferred multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and production delays.
Agent was released on 28 April 2023 and received mixed to negative reviews from critics. The film became a commercial disappointment at the box office, which prompted producer Anil Sunkara and Akhil Akkineni to apologize, accepting that the production commenced without a bound script.[6]
RAW chief Col. Mahadev alias "The Devil" gets interrogated about orchestrating an impossible mission to kill two terrorists. He reveals that the two terrorists were working under a private terror organization called "The Syndicate", which is headed by Central Minister Jai Kishan and "The God".
Meanwhile, Ramakrishna "Ricky" alias "Wild Saala", an aspiring youngster, wants to become a RAW agent despite many failed attempts. After seeing his capability, Mahadev assigns Ricky on a mission to disguise himself as a rookie to capture "The God". It is revealed that "The God" is actually Dharma, a former RAW agent, who went rogue after Mahadev forced him to kill his girlfriend. Dharma now plans to spread a deadly virus dubbed "Super Cells". During a shootout with Mahadev, the device containing the virus is damaged and leads to a technical problem.
Ricky kills Jai Kishan in a shootout at the harbour and heads to Kashmir to learn about Dharma's other handler of the Syndicate, but the police arrests him, and Mahadev denies him as a RAW agent. Shortly after doing so, Ricky escapes from custody with Dharma's help. It is later revealed that Ricky's arrest was a ruse planned by both Ricky and Mahadev to learn about Dharma's operations.
Meanwhile, the device containing the virus is fixed, and a meeting is arranged to sell the device to the highest bidder, which Mahadev learns about this from Ricky and assigns him to retrieve a copy of the device, which also consists the names and identities of all active RAW agents. Dharma finds out that Ricky is copying the device, upon which Dharma confronts Mahadev and forces him to shoot himself or Dharma would spread the virus through missiles.
In the post credits scene, Mahadev tells Ricky to shoot him, which he reluctantly does. Ricky tracks down Dharma and kills him, whilst also stopping the missiles from releasing the virus in the country. Afterwards, Ricky heads on a new mission dubbed "Rabbit Fire".
The film was announced by Akhil Akkineni in September 2020, tentatively titled Akhil 5, with Surender Reddy as the director.[9] It was officially launched on Akkineni's birthday in April 2021, revealing the title and posters.[10][11] A pooja ceremony was held on the launch day.[12]
Akkineni's role as a spy was reportedly inspired by the character of Jason Bourne from the American film series Bourne.[13] Akkineni bulked up his body for the role.[14] In December 2020, model Sakshi Vaidya was confirmed as the female lead.[15] In March 2021, Mohanlal was approached for the role of a military officer.[13] Subsequently, Upendra was also considered, but the role was ultimately signed by Mammootty, whose casting was confirmed in June 2021. It also marks the collaboration between Mammootty, Akkineni and Surender Reddy.[16][17] Dino Morea was cast as the main antagonist, who plays a rogue agent.[18]
Earlier, Thaman S was chosen as the composer of the film's score and soundtrack.[26] Later, in September 2021, he had been replaced by Tamil musical duo Hiphop Tamizha,[27][28][29] marking their second collaboration with Surender Reddy after Dhruva (2016). The music rights of the film are owned by Lahari Music and T Series.
The first single titled "Malli Malli" was released on 22 February 2023, and it samples the bassline instrumental of the 2015 song "Save Dat Money" by American rappers Lil Dicky, Fetty Wap, and Rich Homie Quan. The second single titled "Endhe Endhe" was released on 24 March 2023. The third single titled "Rama Krishna" was released on 13 April 2023. The fourth single titled "Wild Saala" was released on 25 April 2023.
Agent was released on 28 April 2023.[1] Initially, the film was initially scheduled for a release on 24 December 2021,[30][31] but the film's production was heavily delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[32]
Later, the film was scheduled to release on 12 August 2022 but was delayed again due to production delays and Akkineni's injuries.[25][33][34] The film was then planned for a January 2023 release, coinciding with Makara Sankranti before being postponed to the current date.[35] The film is set to release in Telugu along with the dubbed versions in Malayalam. It was previously set to be release in five languages, but later it was set only to release the film in Telugu and Malayalam languages.[36]
Ting stars as Jim Yung, recruited into an underground fighting force against the evil Kinnians. Leading this band of troops is Alastair (Michael Dorn). Dorn made his name through voice-work and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He is always a welcome face, and voice. His role here is largely expositional, training Jim to fight the Kinnians who harness life-force (mana) from the human race.
There are a lot of other characters. A lot. They generally dress in military fatigues but never look stern or military-like. Some of them are undercover Kinnians while others are helping Jim fight the good fight. Most of them survive for the sequel set up at the end of the movie.
Here's where I'm at right now in the journey because it changes, right? I mean, I'm an old man now and I've been doing this thing for a minute and it keeps evolving. Evolving, and I keep learning and I keep growing. I hope I do until I'm bones. But I think that at the moment, the thing that intrigues and fascinates me the most is probably the boring answer. Maybe it's not boring, but it's the very heady answer of I have so many perplexing questions about this life at this moment. I thought at 49 I would've really figured stuff out. I really thought I would understand why I get so depressed, why I get so anxious over little weird things. Why is it so hard sometimes to wake up in the morning? Why am I so afraid of the things that I'm afraid of? And I think that through the lens of this genre, which is unfortunately, it's not that it can't be fun, right?
Fun can happen and you could still wrestle with and explore those questions. Right now, I'm just at this place where I'm staring at the universe around me being like, God, this doesn't get easier. And then when you go through a story where you have an incredible new iconic monster or entity or event, whatever it may be, nature horror, serial killer horror, supernatural Horror, slasher gore fest. To me, that's the thing that when someone sends me a project or we're starting to develop an idea with the company that I am running right now or I'm trying to create something, that's the thing that hooks me, gets me, gets me going. It gets me really revved up about the thought of jumping in on something and giving that energy to it.
Angel Melanson: The cycle has come back around and it's time for the stuff that I really, really champion and enjoy. And also to piggyback on that, I love to see just diverse characters like queer characters, and characters of color, and it has nothing to do with the story. They just happen to be there because they just exist in normal spaces. And I would like to see a little more of that. I feel like we're slowly getting there, but we need more of that.
Peter Kuplowsky: I feel like when Jordan Peel's Get Out came, it was great, but I also think that Hollywood learned the wrong lesson, which was like, oh, we all have to make these Get Out-style movies that have to be movies about that are very much with that discourse at the top of mind.
Akela Cooper: Yeah, it was like every time I would go out to pitch something that just happened to have a black lead being in a horror movie, the execs would politely listen to my pitch and they would go, but what is this saying? And I would be like, if this situation fucking sucks and is terrifying, they're like, no, no, on a deeper level, what is it saying? And they would be like them staring at me, me staring at them, and I'm like, I'm going to make you white executives say it. But yeah, it was always like, what is it saying about the black community is like, this fucking situation is terrifying. But yeah, no, it was push that any horror film that I had to do had to say something. And I hope that what clout I have from Malignant and Megan will help me in the future get those movies off the ground now.
David Dastmalchian: Right. I guess I'm yearning to see it. I love fantasy horror. I love good science fiction horror, but I'm a lifelong comic collector and I've collected horror comics for most of my life. But I do love the intersection between superhero mythologies and horror. And I'd like to see that explored more. It has been done and there are people doing it. I think that's really exciting. And I just think there's something about the way we're intersecting with technology, which you've done in a really cool way, but what I'm yearning for right now is the way we experience it. I feel like we're all on the brink of something. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's VR, I want a new experience for my horror and I think about this a lot. What does that look and feel like? Do we get William Castle on their asses? Is it just bringing in some kind of live element to the theatrical experience? Is that possible? Is there a way legally and financially to pull that off?
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