Over a month after its theatrical release, the Nandamuri Balakrishna-starrer Daaku Maharaaj will hit the OTT platforms for those who missed the big screen experience. Earlier this week, Netflix announced that the action-packed would be streaming on their platform, urging fans to gear up for its release on Friday, February 21.
Alongside NBK, Bobby Deol, Pragya Jaiswal, Shraddha Srinath, Rishi, Chandini Chowdary, Urvashi Rautela and Shine Tom Chacko also feature in the film, helmed by Bobby Kolli. Daaku Maharaaj, set in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor, shifts between the past and present. Beginning in 1996, NBK’s Sitaram – who goes by the alias Daaku Maharaaj – escapes prison to protect Vaishnavi, the orphaned granddaughter of a successful man. Flashing back to reveal the motive behind acting as a guardian angel, the narrative unfolds against a drought-stricken Chambal division.
Daaku Maharaaj earned mixed reviews from critics, Rahul Devulapalli from THE WEEK noting, “The parameters for Balakrishna’s movies are the ‘highs’ and emotional quotient rather than logic or innovative storytelling. To sum up, Balakrishna’s movie is a blockbuster if his fans can rise up and hoot for his action scenes.”
The film, bankrolled by Sithara Entertainments, Fortune Four Cinemas, and Srikara Studios, just managed to cross its budget at the box office, earning Rs 115 crore against a Rs 100 crore production cost.
Urvashi Rautela missing from the poster?
When Netflix announced the film’s arrival on the platform, many were quick to point out a noticeable exclusion from the poster – Urvashi Rautela was nowhere to be found. During the film’s press tour, Rautela was slammed for her tone-deaf and insensitive comments she made when she drifted the conversation to Daaku Maharaaj and its Rs 105 crore success in response to a question about the Saif Ali Khan stabbing incident that occurred at the time.
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Heavily trolled under the Netflix announcement on Instagram, one fan joked, “India’s first woman to be removed from the poster of a 105+ cr film,” while another wrote, “Queen urvashi not in poster too [sic].”
