The reunion is official. Six years after Rangasthalam hauled ₹131.20 crore and recalibrated Telugu rural storytelling, Ram Charan and director Sukumar assembled in Hyderabad on Sunday to roll cameras on their next tentpole, tentatively titled RC17.
Promptly at 10:50 am, Megastar Chiranjeevi cracked the ceremonial coconut and sounded the first clapboard. It is an auspicious habit that family records treat seriously. Chiranjeevi delivered identical opening claps for SS Rajamouli's RRR — which amassed ₹782.2 crore domestically — followed by Shankar's Game Changer (₹131.20 crore) and Buchi Babu Sana's Peddi (₹244.64 crore). Production begins immediately at Ramoji Film City under producers Mythri Movie Makers, Sukumar Writings, and T-Series Films.
Yet the real eyebrow-raiser sits in the film's musical credits. Sukumar has formally parted ways with his career-long sonic architect Devi Sri Prasad, tapping Tamil chart-buster Anirudh Ravichander instead. It is a calculated gamble. For two decades, Sukumar's cinematic identity — from rural earworms to feverish item tracks — belonged strictly to DSP. Handing the baton to Anirudh signals an aggressive, panic-free bid to conquer urban streaming circuits and northern pan-Indian tickets. Behind the camera, veteran cinematographer Ratnavelu takes command of visual textures designed around a rugged, unpolished Charan.
Sunday's launch turned the venue into an impromptu guild summit. Filmmakers Buchi Babu Sana, Harish Shankar, Naga Vamsi, Rahul Sankrityan, Gopichand Malineni, and Maruthi flanked producers Naveen Yerneni and Y. Ravi Shankar as Charan lit the ceremonial brass lamp. Mythri Movie Makers stamped the launch with a sparse promotional tagline: "You Can Imagine."
Whether the new canvas can outpunch Rangasthalam's raw emotional weight remains the baseline test. Casting reveals for the primary antagonist and female lead are expected across the coming weeks as principal photography accelerates in Hyderabad.