SALAAR

Prashanth Neel is the writer and director of Salaar: Part 1-Ceasefire (transl. Commander), an epic action movie released in 2023 in Telugu by Vijay Kiragandur Productions.

In addition to Shruti Haasan, Jagapathi Babu, Bobby Simha, Tinnu Anand, Easwari Rao, Sriya Reddy, and Ramachandra Raju in the supporting roles, the film stars Prabhas and Prithviraj Sukumaran.

The film centers on the friendship between Varadha (Prithviraj), the prince of Khansaar, and Deva (Prabhas), a tribesman, and is set in the fictional dystopian city-state of Khansaar.

Varadha enlists Deva's assistance to take Khansaar's throne from his father's ministers and relatives as they plot a coup.

The first half of a two-part movie, the film's story was adapted from Neel's debut feature Ugramm (2014).

In 1985, Vardharaja "Vardha" Mannar, the father of Vardha, is the powerful city-state of Khansaar, where Deva and Vardha are inseparable friends.

A crowd attacks Deva and his mother at their home after Raja Mannar, the chief of the Mannar tribe, orders the destruction of the Shouryaanga tribe.

However, Vardha steps in to save them and grants them a significant territory in return for sparing their lives.

Deva promises to answer Vardha's call before leaving Khansaar.

Business magnate Krishnakanth finds out in 2017 that his daughter Aadhya traveled from New York to Varanasi to complete her mother's final ceremonies.

This notifies Krishnakanth's longtime opponents, who plan to kidnap her.

However, Krishnakanth enlists Bilal's help, and together they foil the adversaries' attempts to capture.

Videh Anand as a youthful Deva, Prabhas as Devaratha "Deva" Raisaar alias "Salaar"

Prithviraj Sukumaran plays two roles: Vardha Raja "Vardha" Mannar and Siva Mannar; Kartika Dev plays the younger Vardha Raja Mannar; Shruti Haasan plays Aadhya Krishnakanth; Easwari Rao is Deva's mother and a school principal; Jagapathi Babu plays Raja Mannar; Tinnu Anand plays Gaikwad alias "Baba"; John Vijay plays Ranga; Ramachanddra Raju plays Rudra Raja Mannar; MS Chowdary plays Naarang; Ramana plays Rinda; Jhansi plays Obulamma; Pramod Panju plays Baachi Raja Mannar; Vajrang Shetty plays Vishnu; Saurav Lokesh plays Cheeka; Cheluvaraj is Gurung Madhu Guruswamy

After seeing Neel's debut feature Ugramm (2014), Prabhas approached Prashanth Neel to helm his next movie in August 2020.

Production for the new movie was scheduled to start in 2022 because both Prabhas and Neel had previous commitments at the time.

Prabhas was filming Radhe Shyam and Adipurush, while Neel was working on KGF: Chapter 2.

Neel was rumored to start work on his upcoming directing projects in November, starring either Prabhas or N. T. Rama Rao Jr.

Hombale Films revealed on December 2nd that Neel and Prabhas would next work together on Salaar, Neel's first Telugu-language feature.

On January 15, 2021, a muhuratam pooja ceremony was performed in Hyderabad, attended by the cast and crew of the movie.

The score was composed by Ravi Basrur.

Neel said after casting Prabhas, "I was charmed to his purity.

As a performer, Prabhas seems more innocent than most.

Drawing out this innocence and putting it on screen will be amazing," Prabhas said, adding that he "hasn't really done before" with his "very aggressive" character.

It was said that the latter developed greater muscle and fitness for his position.

He was also said to have two roles, though this was later refuted.

On January 28, 2021, Prabhas welcomed Shruti Haasan to the Salaar team and wished her a happy birthday.

The payment she received for her role as Aadhya was ₹8 crore (US$1.0 million).

At a Radhe Shyam press conference in Kochi, Prabhas disclosed that Prithviraj Sukumaran would play.

On December 22, 2023, Salaar Part 1 - Ceasefire was released in theaters in both normal and IMAX formats.

Along with dubbed versions of Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam, it was released in Telugu.

The Central Board of Film Certification awarded the movie an A (for adults only) certification due to its violent and dramatic action scenes.

Since the board had revised its guidelines, the makers accepted the adult categorization even though they had anticipated a U/A (parental guidance) classification and were unwilling to make any changes.

The movie's 14 April 2022 release date was revealed earlier in August 2021.

Later on, the movie was pushed back since Neel and Hombale's KGF: Chapter 2 was supposed to come out on that day.