TLDR: Anaganaga Oka Raju is a 2026 Telugu comedy-drama directed by Maari, starring Naveen Polishetty and Meenakshi Chaudhary.
It tells the story of Raju — a broke man pretending to be rich — who marries a woman who is doing the exact same thing.
What starts as a breezy village love-con comedy pivots into an unexpected political drama in the second half.
Produced by Suryadevara Naga Vamsi and Sai Soujanya under Sithara Entertainments and Fortune Four Cinemas, with music by Mickey J. Meyer, the film released on 14 January 2026 for Sankranthi and crossed ₹100 crore at the worldwide box office.
It received mostly positive reviews, praised for Naveen Polishetty’s comic timing and the entertaining first half, with some criticism for a slow and predictable second half. Now streaming on Netflix from 11 February 2026.
I will be honest with you.
When I sat down to watch Anaganaga Oka Raju, I was not fully convinced it would work. Not because of Naveen Polishetty — I have never doubted him — but because this film had a troubled production history that stretched over four years, went through a director change, a composer change, and a lead actress change. Films that go through that kind of turbulence rarely arrive in one clean piece.
And yet here we are. A ₹100 crore hit. A film that made audiences genuinely happy during Sankranthi 2026.
So the question is not whether it succeeded commercially. It clearly did. The question is whether it deserved to.
My answer is: mostly, yes. With some honest reservations.
Anaganaga Oka Raju — Movie Details
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Title | Anaganaga Oka Raju |
| Release Date | 14 January 2026 (Sankranthi, Theatrical) |
| OTT Release | 11 February 2026 on Netflix |
| Director | Maari |
| Written by | Maari |
| Produced by | Suryadevara Naga Vamsi, Sai Soujanya |
| Production | Sithara Entertainments, Fortune Four Cinemas |
| Music | Mickey J. Meyer |
| Cinematography | J. Yuvaraj |
| Editor | Vamsi Atluri |
| Lyrics | Chandrabose |
| Runtime | 147 minutes |
| Language | Telugu |
| Box Office | ₹58–₹100.20 crore (Worldwide) |
| Streaming | Netflix (Telugu with subtitles in multiple languages) |
What Is Anaganaga Oka Raju About?
The title translates to Once Upon a Time, a King — and that framing tells you everything about the film’s tone before a single frame rolls.
Raju is the grandson of a once-powerful zamindar whose family fortune was completely squandered by his grandfather’s indulgence and misplaced generosity. The money is gone. The lands are gone. All that remains is the family name — and in their village, that name still carries enormous weight.
Raju refuses to let anyone know the truth. He lives the illusion of wealth. He dresses well, carries himself like a man of means, and allows the village to believe he is rich. He gets away with it — until he attends a friend’s lavish wedding and feels the full humiliation of his actual situation.
His solution: marry into money. Find a wealthy woman, restore the family status, and fix everything in one stroke.
At a village fair, he meets Charulatha — and she fits every requirement. With his loyal assistant Gumastha and a group of friends, Raju launches the hilariously named Operation Charulatha. The scheme works. They marry.
Then comes the twist that makes this film genuinely worth watching.
On their wedding night, Raju receives a letter from his father-in-law. Charulatha’s family is bankrupt. She had been doing exactly what Raju was doing — pretending to be wealthy, hoping to marry into money to rescue her father. Two people, both running the same con, ended up conning each other.
It is a beautifully constructed comic premise. And director Maari handles that reveal with real skill.
The second half shifts into a different register. Provoked by the cunning village villain Erribabu, Raju stumbles into local politics. His accidental social-media-driven election campaign goes viral, puts pressure on a corrupt MLA, and eventually draws Raju into a fight he never intended to start. When the MLA offers him a ₹20 crore bribe to withdraw, Raju secretly uses that money to reclaim lands the villagers had been forced to mortgage — lands sitting on oil reserves that the MLA had been planning to exploit.
Raju begins the film as a man performing the role of a king. He ends it having actually become one.
Full Cast Breakdown
| Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Naveen Polishetty | Raju / Gouravapuram Goparaju (also plays Raju’s grandfather) |
| Meenakshi Chaudhary | Charulatha “Charu” |
| Rao Ramesh | Pedapalem Bhupathi Raju — Charu’s father |
| Tarak Ponnappa | Erri Babu — the village antagonist |
| Goparaju Ramana | Muhurthala Murthy — marriage broker |
| Chammak Chandra | Gumastha — Raju’s loyal assistant |
| Madhusudhan Rao | MLA Ramamurthy — Erribabu’s brother, the political villain |
| Mamilla Shailaja Priya | Raju’s mother |
| Jhansi | Parijatham — Raju’s relative |
| Ananth Babu | Priest |
| Mukku Avinash | Buchibabu — Parijatham’s son |
| Faria Abdullah | Peetambari (cameo) |
| Saanve Megghana | Dancer in “Andhra to Telangana” (cameo) |
A few casting details worth noting. Naveen Polishetty plays a dual role — both Raju and his grandfather in flashback sequences, which required him to carry two very different personalities in the same film. Chammak Chandra as the loyal assistant Gumastha is consistently funny without ever overplaying. And Rao Ramesh, one of Telugu cinema’s most dependable character actors, brings a warm dignity to what could have been a simple comic father-in-law role.
The Longest Production Journey — Four Years to Get Here
This film’s behind-the-scenes story is almost as interesting as the film itself, and I think it deserves proper attention.
Sithara Entertainments and Fortune Four Cinemas announced the project in September 2021, with Kalyan Shankar set to make his directorial debut and Naveen Polishetty confirmed as the lead. In January 2022, the title Anaganaga Oka Raju was unveiled. Thaman S was announced as the music composer, and Sreeleela was in consideration for the female lead.
By 2023, none of that was true anymore.
Director Kalyan Shankar was replaced by Maari due to creative differences. Thaman S was replaced by Mickey J. Meyer. Sreeleela — who was also rumoured for the role following her massive success in Pushpa 2 — did not come on board. In December 2024, Meenakshi Chaudhary was officially confirmed as the female lead, replacing Sreeleela.
Principal photography began in February 2025 and was completed in a compact six-month schedule. The film was pushed to 14 January 2026 to coincide with Sankranthi — a high-stakes release window shared with several major Telugu films that season.
That it emerged as a coherent, entertaining film given all that upheaval is genuinely impressive.
Naveen Polishetty — The Entire Film Lives in His Eyes
Let me be direct: Naveen Polishetty is not just the best thing in this film. He is this film.
Every scene he appears in has an energy that the scenes without him simply do not match. His comic timing is precise — he never pushes a joke too far, never milks a reaction for longer than it deserves. The laughs land because they look effortless, and effortless comedy is the hardest kind to produce.
What I find most impressive about his performance here is how he handles the dual role. Raju the grandson and Raju’s grandfather are played very differently — and both work. There is a physicality and a looseness to the young Raju that shifts into something heavier and more weathered when he inhabits the older man. It is not a showy performance. It is a careful one.
There is also a moment in the film — I will not say exactly when — where Raju stops being funny and becomes genuinely moving. That transition is hard to execute without it feeling manipulative. Naveen handles it with real grace.
One more thing worth mentioning: Bhimavaram Balma marked Naveen Polishetty’s debut as a singer. It is a mass number, loud and energetic and designed for the Sankranthi crowd. I did not expect it to stay in my head for a week. It did.
Meenakshi Chaudhary — Better Than the Role Required
Meenakshi Chaudhary replaced Sreeleela, and the industry was watching to see if that substitution would cost the film anything.
It did not.
Charulatha is not written as a deeply complex character — she is warm, dignified, quietly sharp, and serves primarily as the emotional anchor to Raju’s chaos. Meenakshi plays that with a lightness and a genuine screen presence that surprised me. She does not try to compete with Naveen’s energy. Instead, she complements it.
Their chemistry is easy and natural. It does not feel manufactured or directed. These two people look like they genuinely enjoy being on screen together — and that ease comes through in every shared scene.
Mickey J. Meyer — The Music Fits the Film Perfectly
Mickey J. Meyer replaced Thaman S as composer, and I think that change ultimately served the film well.
Where Thaman tends toward spectacle and scale, Mickey J. Meyer understands texture. His music for Anaganaga Oka Raju is rooted in a folk-meets-contemporary Telugu sound that suits the village setting and festive tone without ever feeling generic.
“Bhimavaram Balma” — Released on 27 November 2025, this was also Naveen Polishetty’s singing debut. It is a quintessential mass number. Loud, catchy, built for a Sankranthi crowd. It works completely.
“Raju Gaari Pelli Ro” — Released on 26 December 2025. More festive, more melodic, and genuinely warm. It plays better in context than it did as a standalone single.
All lyrics are written by Chandrabose, who brings the kind of culturally rich wordplay that elevates Telugu film music at its best. The songs serve the story. They do not interrupt it. That discipline is increasingly rare in mainstream Telugu commercial cinema.
What Works
The first half is very nearly perfect for what it is. The village setting is alive and specific. The comedy is grounded in character rather than manufactured situations. The Operation Charulatha sequence is hilarious from beginning to end. The wedding night reveal — both families discovering they have been running the same con — is one of the most satisfying comic moments I have seen in Telugu cinema this year.
Naveen Polishetty’s performance carries the entire film on its own terms. Meenakshi Chaudhary is a genuinely pleasant surprise. The music fits the film without overpowering it. J. Yuvaraj’s cinematography gives the village setting a warm, sun-soaked visual quality that matches the festive tone.
The climax earns its emotion. Raju using the bribe money to reclaim the villagers’ mortgaged lands is a choice that feels both surprising and completely in character — and the film builds to it carefully enough that the payoff lands properly.
What Doesn’t Work
The second half is where my honest reservations live.
The political turn is not a bad idea in principle — Raju entering village politics as a way to solve his financial problems is a natural extension of his character. But the execution is uneven. The transition from love-story comedy to political drama feels abrupt rather than earned, and several scenes in the second half run longer than they need to.
Erribabu — the village antagonist played by Tarak Ponnappa — works as a concept but does not fully land as a threatening or memorable villain. He feels like a device more than a character. The MLA subplot, similarly, resolves a little too neatly.
The writing in the second half lacks the sharpness of the first. Where the first half felt tight and purposeful, the second half occasionally meanders. At 147 minutes, the film is not overlong by Telugu commercial cinema standards — but there are twenty minutes in the middle of the second half that could have been tightened without losing anything important.
How It Compares to Other 2026 South Indian Releases
2026 has been an interesting year for South Indian cinema — ambitious first halves, uncertain second halves, and commercial results that have surprised everyone.
We recently reviewed Dacoit: A Love Story (2026) — a Telugu action-romance that similarly impressed in its first half before losing clarity in the second. Anaganaga Oka Raju has a similar pattern, though it handles the tonal shift more gracefully.
We also covered LIK: Love Insurance Kompany (2026) — a Tamil sci-fi romantic comedy with genuine ambition and a slow second half that cost it commercially. LIK had a fresher premise but a more frustrating execution. Anaganaga Oka Raju had a more familiar premise but delivered it with more consistent craft.
If you are looking for more South Indian films to explore, browse the full collection in our South Indian Movies category on HDMovies4U.
Where to Watch
Anaganaga Oka Raju is currently streaming on Netflix from 11 February 2026, in Telugu with subtitles available in multiple languages. If you missed the theatrical run, this is the version to watch — the film’s village aesthetic and warm cinematography hold up well on a home screen.
My Final Verdict
Anaganaga Oka Raju is a film I enjoyed more than I expected to, and slightly less than I wanted to.
The first half is genuinely excellent — tight, funny, and built around a comic premise that is both simple and perfectly constructed. Naveen Polishetty is at the top of his game, delivering the kind of performance that makes you forget you are watching a performance at all. Meenakshi Chaudhary is a warm and capable screen partner. Mickey J. Meyer’s music fits the world the film builds.
The second half loses some of that sharpness. The political story is not bad — it is just not as good as what came before it. The villain is underdeveloped. A few scenes drag. The film takes slightly too long to get to a climax that, when it arrives, is genuinely satisfying.
But here is what I keep coming back to: Anaganaga Oka Raju makes you feel good. It has warmth. It has craft. It has a lead performance that carries it through its weaker moments without breaking a sweat. In a Sankranthi season crowded with bigger films and louder spectacles, it earned its ₹100 crore and its audience — and it deserved both.
Watch it on Netflix. It is a good film. Not a perfect one. But a good one, and sometimes that is exactly what you need.
My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars. A breezy, charming Telugu entertainer that lives entirely in Naveen Polishetty’s hands — and those are very good hands to be in.
