Thammudu (2025 film)

Thammudu
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Venu Sriram
Written by	Venu Sriram
Produced by	Dil Raju Sirish
Starring	Nithin Laya Sapthami Gowda Varsha Bollamma
Cinematography	K. V. Guhan Sameer Reddy Satyajit Pande (Setu)
Edited by	Prawin Pudi
Music by	B. Ajaneesh Loknath
Production company	Sri Venkateswara Creations
Release date	4 July 2025 (2025-07-04)
Running time	154 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Box office	₹8.33 crore (US$990,000)

Thammudu (transl. Younger brother) is a 2025 Indian Telugu-language Survival action drama film written and directed by Venu Sriram and produced by Dil Raju through Sri Venkateswara Creations. The film stars Nithiin, Laya, Sapthami Gowda, and Varsha Bollamma in the lead roles. B. Ajaneesh Loknath composed the soundtrack and score, while K. V. Guhan, Sameer Reddy and Satyajit Pande handled the cinematography, with Prawin Pudi handling the editing.

Shot extensively in Visakhapatnam and Maredumilli of Andhra Pradesh, the film was released on 4 July 2025. The film received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and was a box-office bomb. It was released on Netflix on 1 August 2025.

Plot

This film starts with Jai, a skilled archer who aims to get a gold medal in the upcoming 2025 Archery World Cup, but his coach has been dissatisfied with his performance in practice sessions and encouraged him to find a solution regarding his situation. Later, with the encouragement of his best friend and only constant support, named Chitra, an entrepreneur. Then he got to realize his emotional trauma of being separated from his elder sister, Snehalata, who has a motherly bond with her, during childhood. 20 years ago Snehalata, a woman of her word who loved a person and promised to marry him, but her father opposed her decision. With no other option left to keep her promise, she decided to elope with the person and sent the plan in a letter through her brother, the young Jai. But when Jai is about to go out, his father notices the letter. Then he fears Jai will give the letter to his father, and he becomes angry and marries her off to another person. Then after the marriage, she got to know that her lover had committed suicide for not marrying her, and Snehalata became angry at her father and later disowned them.

Then the duo traces her to Hyderabad and finds out that Snehalata became an IAS and changed her identity to Jhansi Kiranmayi. Meanwhile, Jhansi becomes a principled government officer who refuses to sign off on a falsified report related to a chemical factory explosion in Vizag, and she promises herself to get justice for the victims in the blast. Her decision places her and her family in danger from a powerful and corrupt industrialist, Agarwal, who has a fear of hearing sounds; he can't bear to hear any sound more than 20 decibels.

During a tribal festival called "Pagadalamma Jatara," which only comes once every 12 years in the remote Ambaragodugu forest region near the Andhra–Chhattisgarh border, it is a lawless land and well known for ruthless decoits, where Jhansi and her family take the Darshan. There Agarwal orchestrates a violent attack on Jhansi's family. Jai, in search of his sister, reaches the location and reunites with her. As the night unfolds, he takes on the responsibility of defending his sister and her loved ones against multiple waves of assaults. Utilizing his archery skills and driven by a desire for redemption and familial love, Jai confronts the attackers in a survival battle that tests his endurance and moral resolve. In the route they are trying to cross Ambaragodugu; thereafter, after talking with Jhansi, Chitra and Jai understand that Jhansi had lost her word once, and she considers it as her new life. Jhansi declares she is not Snehalata anymore; she considers her past as a dead person. Getting respect for her thoughts, the duo decides not to reveal their identity to her. Jai decides to protect Jhansi and her family; the duo starts guarding them from the threats of Agarwal.

Meanwhile, Francis, a subordinate to Agarwal, had several failed attempts to kill Jhansi and her family, and then Agarwal announced a bounty of Rs.1 crore to the villages of Ambaragodugu for killing them. To escape from them, Jai tries to contact the emergency numbers in the forest region. There he reaches out to an emergency call center girl called Ratna. The center is run by an NGO, and she helps in the emergency situations for the customers through the calls. Being a kindhearted woman, she decides to guide them out of the Ambaragodugu forest; there she suggests taking help from Gutti, a ferocious but greedy woman, to escape from the forest.

Unaware of the facts, Gutti decides to help them and takes it as an opportunity to loot them. Meanwhile there they face Murugan, the head of the dacoits in the forest, who responded to the bounty and tries violently to kill them all and damages the Gutti's vehicle, and the family leaves the vehicle. At the same time, one of Jhansi's sisters-in-law suffers a labor pain on the route, and then with a hard struggle, Jai saves them from Murugan, and she gives birth to a baby girl through the help of Jhansi, Chitra, Jhansi's only child Divya, and Ratna through a call; later, with the gratitude of the family, she asks Ratna to suggest a name for the baby girl, and she names her Chamundeswari and gets a silent admiration from Jai.

Later the family successfully escapes from Murugan's men through a boat in a lake. After crossing the lake, Jhansi realizes that Divya has been missing in the frenzy. Jai decides to come back looking for his niece and gives the responsibility to Chitra to save them till the border. Then it is revealed that Divya is stuckin a hollow generally used for hunting deer. There Murugan finds her, and he is about to kill her, then Jai comes to her rescue and protects his niece and bashes Murugan and escapes. Meanwhile, knowing about the bounty, Gutti makes a deal with Francis to kill them all by herself and give a tip about Ratna to him; if they stop her, they can easily catch Jhansi and her family. Later she reaches them by believing them into a rescue and spots them in a den. There Chitra fights with Gutti; with a hard struggle, she manages to kill her. Later she dies in the arms of Jai, declaring her life purpose has been fulfilled by dying for him. Then it is revealed that Jai has been protecting her from an abusive childhood since the age of 7. From then on, Chitra becomes an obedient and trusted friend for him.

They buried Chitra's body under a banyan tree and headed towards the border. Meanwhile, Ratna was under attack by Francis's men, and they destroyed her call center, which disconnected Jai. Then Ratna killed them all and started to meet Jai and his family to protect them in person. Then Jai and his family are about to cross a deadly bridge, which is the only exit route in Ambaragodugu, which hasn't been used much by the public. After crossing the bridge and getting out of the forest, the police force is waiting for them for security from Agarwal. When they are about to cross the bridge, then Francis attacks them with landmines. Then Jai kills Francis by using his archery skills in the fight and successfully escapes the bridge. He realized while killing Francis he had overcome his trauma, and all the family knows through Divya that Jai is Jhansi's younger brother. Then Murugan finds them crossing the bridge and about to shoot an arrow, and then suddenly Ratna stabs him from the back and kills him. Then Ratna chose to go back instead of following them.

Then they successfully reach the police force and get a basic treatment for Jhansi, who has been severely stabbed by Francis before his death. Then Jhansi, instead of going for treatment, stands to protect justice; she decides to share her reports in the Collectorate of Vizag at 9:00 am. Then the commissioner reveals that Vizag is completely hijacked by Agawal's private army, who are on a hunt to kill them, and he was cuffed up by the corrupt politicians to not interfere. Then Jai diverts his men towards him and reaches Agarwal's house, where Agarwal meets him in person with the help of a soundproof box and declares it is his idea to divide him from his family and they are no one to protect his family. Then, observing his situation, Jai breaks Agarwal's shield and takes him as his hostage and stops all the people who are trying to kill Jhansi. Later the wounded Jhansi successfully submits the report on time, and Jai releases Agawal from his soundproof shield in front of victims of his factory blast. Agarwal cannot bear any sound and dies by breaking his eardrums.

Finally the film ends up with the victims getting justice and the government taking over Agawal's properties. Finally, Jhansi declares that Jai is a god-gifted brother to her and fulfilled his wish. Later Jai pays the last rites to Chitra on her headstone and declares his love towards Ratna, and they happily hug each other.

Cast

• Nithiin as Jai
• Laya as Jhansi Kiranmayee IAS aka Snehalata
• Sapthami Gowda as Ratna
• Varsha Bollamma as Chitra
• Saurabh Sachdeva as Agarwal
• Swasika as Gutti
• Srikanth Iyengar as Shiva
• Naga Mahesh Vaddi as Minister Mahendra Varma
• Temper Vamsi Krishna as Francis
• Hari Teja as Tejamma
• Ravi Bhatt
• Uday Mahesh as Jai’s Coach
• Cheluvaraj
• Chammak Chandra as Narasaiah
• Sreedhar Reddy Nalla
• Vachaspathi Ambadipudi Muralikrishna
• Reddi Bhanu Prasad as Sekhar
• Balagam Sanjay Krishna as Dinesh
• Rohit Addanki as Ganesh
• Shanthi Devagudi
• Vamsi Raghava Yenumula as Jeevan
• Kishore Raju Vasistha as Ravi

Production

The film was produced by Dil Raju and Sireesh under the banner of Sri Venkateswara Creations. The production house is known for backing several major Telugu-language films. Thammudu marks another collaboration between the producers and actor Nithiin.

Music

Thammudu
Soundtrack album by B. Ajaneesh Loknath
Released	2025
Recorded	2025
Studio	Annapurna Studios
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	14:54
Label	T-Series
Producer	B. Ajaneesh Loknath
B. Ajaneesh Loknath chronology
Odela 2 (2025) Thammudu (2025) Devil: The Hero (2025)

The music is composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath. The soundtrack album was released on 4 July 2024 through T-Series.

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Bhuu Antuu Bhuutham"	Simhachalam Mannela	Anurag Kulkarni, Akshitha Pola	3:25
2.	"Jai Bagalaamukhii"	Jonnavittula Ramalingeswara Rao	Abby V	4:18
3.	"Chillax Song"	Kasarla Shyam	Nakash Aziz	2:46
4.	"Slokam"	Traditional	Aniruddha Sastry	2:21
5.	"Mood Of Thammudu"			1:50
Total length:				14:54

Release

Thammudu was released in cinemas on 4 July 2025. It received an 'A' certificate from CBFC citing its intense violence. Post-theatrical digital streaming rights were acquired by Netflix and was released on 1 August 2025.

Reception

Thammudu received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics who praised Nithiin's performance, background score and action sequences but criticized the screenplay, writing and lack of emotional depth.

Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu opined it as a failed execution and wrote that, "On paper, Thammudu might have seemed like a gripping watch —blending complex family dynamics, childhood friendship, and a good-versus-evil survival thriller. But in execution, it is more of an endurance test than an immersive film". BVS Prakash of Deccan Chronicle rated it 1 out of 5 and was negative towards the bland storytelling and weak direction. Calling it a "misfire", The Hollywood Reporter India opined that the weak writing has effected the film. In a similar tone, T Maruthi Acharya of India Today stated that the film, "losing its core and venturing into random action scenes, becomes its biggest issue".

External links

• Thammudu at IMDb