On the occasion of actor Mahesh Babu’s 49th birthday, there wasn’t any new movie update, as has been the trend with many superstar birthdays nowadays. While the lack of updates from the makers of Mahesh’s next with SS Rajamouli was a topic of concern, one other development gave the fans a reason to cheer, whistle, and bring the roof down. Murari, the actor’s fourth film as a leading hero, which not only was a huge box-office success but a critically acclaimed film that won three Nandi awards, was re-released on his birthday on August 9.
The Krishna Vamsi directorial, which was released in 2001, had a blockbuster opening this week, and grossed Rs 5.4 crore worldwide, with Rs 4.4 crore coming from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Scenes from the re-release in the Telugu States exhibited the superstardom of Mahesh Babu, and the audience’s craze for the film, which also starred Sonali Bendre, Sukumari, Prakash raj, and Lakshmi. The amount of cheers and wolf-whistles and the trademark paper bits shower rivalled the celebrations reserved for new releases. These videos were trending on social media, and even Sonali Bendre, who hardly posts content about her older films, took to social media to express her happiness about the love she is receiving for Murari.
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A post shared by Sonali Bendre (@iamsonalibendre)
Sharing a compilation of the celebrations, Sonali wrote, “Shooting Murari with Mahesh Babu was such a joy, and finding Nandini Reddy during that time was a wonderful surprise. This brings back the same warm feelings I had when the movie first came out. It’s incredible to see the same love for the movie even after 23 years! Thank you for all the love. A special mention to Krishna Vamsi for making this film soooo soo soooo special for us all. Also, happiest birthday, Mahesh Babu, hope you had the best one.” The love for Mahesh Babu, Sonali Bendre, and the team of Murari was palpable in the kind of celebrations that happened for the re-release, and it gave an overall sense of happiness looking at people enjoying the supernatural family drama like it was Day 1 of its release, and not Day 8400.
Many young fans too watched Murari for the first time in theatres, and their responses were heartwarming. Apart from shouting their throats hoarse for their matinee idol, they went on to rate Murari as a classic that will always be evergreen. Some called it a cult classic, while others said the success of Murari re-release is testament to the fact that the fandom of Mahesh Babu has only been growing over the years without showing signs of slowing down. Chants of ‘Jai Babu’ rang through the theatres as the film became one of the biggest re-release success of Telugu cinema.
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In a now-viral scene from a theatre, a couple expressed their love for each other and the film by getting married during the screening when the song “Alanati Ramachandradu” played in the background. While this has been receiving a lot of love from all and sundry, director Krishna Vamsi found this action to be unwarranted. During an AMA session on X, Krishna Vamsi, who responded to being asked about this viral video, said, “Not good … Dnt ridicule n insult n abuse our great grand CULTURE and TRADITIONS plzzzzz.” However, a few netizens quickly informed him that they were an already married couple, who just recreated that scene between Mahesh Babu and Sonali Bendre.
Not good … Dnt ridicule n insult n abuse our great grand CULTURE and TRADITIONS plzzzzz ,🙏🙏🙏🙏 https://t.co/CoTJ0tkX3c
— Krishna Vamsi (@director_kv) August 10, 2024
Nevertheless, the hype around Murari is the talk of the town in Telugu cinema, and it adds on to the re-release craze that is taking the country by storm. We saw it becoming the norm in Tamil cinema with films like Ghilli (2004), Paiyaa (2010), Vaaranam Aayiram (2008), Virumaandi (2004), and Baba (2002) re-releasing in the past year. Same is the case with Malayalam cinema where Mohanlal’s Devadoothan (2000) recently hit the screens and created quite a flutter, and things seem to be getting bigger with Manichithrathazhu getting ready for a re-release next week.
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Meanwhile, Murari, backed by N Devi Prasad, Ramalingeswara Rao, and Gopi Nandigam, with music by Mani Sharma, continues to be the rage, and it will be interesting to see if this is the push every other superstar in Telugu needed to re-release their film and ride on the wave of nostalgia.
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