NTR Kathanayakudu movie preview: Will Krish and Balakrishna's biopic live up to expectations?

Directed by Krish and starring Balakrishna as his late father NTR, the NTR biopic split into two – Kathanayakudu and Mahanayakudu – is one of the most-awaited biopics in Tollywood.


Also See: NTR Kathanayakudu Movie Review

With NTR Kathanayakudu slated for release on January 9, the film completed its censor recently and has been rated U with no cuts and a run-time of 170 minutes. The recently released songs by MM Keeravani, first look posters, teasers, trailer and other promotional materials of the film have been received well.



The film features an extensive cast that will see Vidya Balan essaying the role of NTR’s wife Basavatarakam, Sumanth as his late grandfather ANR, Rana Daggubati as Chandrababu Naidu, Kalyan Ram as his late father Harikrishna, Manjima Mohan as Bhuvaneshwari, Himanshi Choudary as Purandeswari, Rakul Preet as Sridevi, Nithya Menen as Savitri, Shalini Pandey as Sowcar Janaki, Payal Rajput as Jayasudha, Brahmanandam as Relangi and many others playing such prominent roles.



‘NTR Kathanayakudu’ will trace the life of NTR when he was a successful actor in Tollywood in the 70s and 80s before turning to politics. ‘NTR Mahanayakudu’ will portray his jump to politics and the formation of the Telugu Desam Party, headed now by his son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu. The second part of the biopic is slated for release on February 8.



Reports state that owing to the film’s popularity, 100 idols of NTR will be placed at 100 theatres across AP and Telangana to promote it. The film’s cast and crew including Balakrishna, Vidya Balan and Kalyan Ram also visited NTR’s village Nimmakuru to pay respects to the NTR and Basavatarakam statues there. Apart from releasing across over 1000 screens in AP and Telangana, reports state that it will also release in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The film will also see release in US, Australia, Canada and a number of Gulf countries.



While there are plans in place to dub the film into other languages, ‘NTR Kathanayakudu’ will only be released worldwide in Telugu. The satellite rights of the film have reportedly been sold to a leading Telugu channel for Rs 25 Cr.