Mohanlal to play Saravana Bhavan Annachi / Conjuring beats Indian releases, Anirudh under Fire

 the Vettiayan director narrated his long-pending Dosa King project to Mohanlal, and the project may materialize this time.Suriya’s Jai Bhim, which was released on OTT, received huge acclaim, and the director, Gnanavel, made Vettaiyan with Rajinikanth, which emerged as a failure and did not get much positive response from the critics either.It is said that the film is based on the real-life story of Saravana Bhavan founder Rajagopal, who was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of murder. Mohanlal is on a high note in his career as he scores three back-to-back successes in 2025.

The term "Dosa King of Chennai" refers to P. Rajagopal, the founder of the globally renowned Saravana Bhavan restaurant chain, which specializes in South Indian cuisine, including dosas. Despite his culinary success, Rajagopal was convicted of murdering a former employee and died in 2019 while facing a life sentence for the crime. 

Unexpectedly, The Conjuring: Last Rites overshadowed all the releases this weekend, emerging as the audience’s first choice to watch. With more than 317K tickets sold in the last 24 hours on BookMyShow, this Hollywood horror film beat the rest in both word-of-mouth and sales. AR Murugadoss’ Madharaasi trailed behind with over 212K tickets sold in the same period.

The final installment of The Conjuring franchise was released in multiple languages, including Telugu, and earned around Rs. 21 crore on day 1, becoming the biggest opening day ever for a Hollywood horror film in India.

A Hollywood movie is leading the way, and it remains to be seen whether Indian films will outshine it today or in the coming days in terms of sales.

Anirudh test work for Madharaasi has received only average response. Fans feel that beyond the film’s own flaws, Anirudh’s music no longer sounds fresh or engaging. Once he could uplift even average films like Jailer with strong background scores, but now doubts are rising about his spark. The BGMs often feel repetitive, missing the creativity that defined his earlier style. Recent tracks have failed to go viral, except Monica from Coolie, which also faded quickly. Projects like Madharaasi, Coolie, Kingdom, Vidamuyaarchi, and Vettaiyan have been widely criticised as mediocre. Anirudh is now under pressure to bounce back. In the coming year, he has several big-ticket films lined up, including Pradeep Ranganathan’s Love Insurance Company, Vijay’s Jana Nayagan, Rajinikanth’s Jailer 2, Gautam Tinnanuri’s Magic, Nani’s Paradise, and Shah Rukh Khan’s King. These films will test his consistency.