Sankranthiki Vasthunam
Sankranthiki Vasthunam is a 2025 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film written and directed by Anil Ravipudi and produced by Sri Venkateswara Creations. It stars Venkatesh, Aishwarya Rajesh, and Meenakshi Chaudhary. The film follows an ex-cop whose happy life is upended when his former girlfriend, who is also a police officer, seeks his help to rescue an abducted NRI CEO from a criminal gang. Throughout the mission, he finds himself caught in the crossfire between his suspicious wife and his former girlfriend.
The film features music composed by Bheems Ceciroleo and cinematography by Sameer Reddy. Principal photography took place in Rajahmundry, Hyderabad, Kasaragod, Dehradun, Mussoorie, and Rishikesh.
Sankranthiki Vasthunam was released on 14 January 2025, coinciding with the Sankranthi festival, where it received generally positive reviews from both critics and audiences. It was a massive box office success, grossing over worldwide and emerged as the [List of Telugu-language|Telugu films of 2025|first-highest grossing Telugu film of the year].
Plot
Satya Akella, a renowned businessman, comes to India for a business vacation on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Keshava’s invitation. Upon the party president's suggestion, he comes to eat in a farmhouse but gets kidnapped by Biju Pandey’s gang, in order to use him as a hostage to get his brother Papa pandey released. However the jailer George Antony refuses to release Papa Pandey without official statement from the government. Meenakshi, a police officer investigates, and takes help from her ex YD Raju a former encounter specialist. However Raju is married to Bhagyam and has 4 children, and has never told Bhagyam about his ex.Meenakshi comes to Raju and asks him to come help, but Bhagyam is worried that their relationship might rekindle and demands to join the operation as well, along with her son father and their household worker. Left with no choice the CM allows it. The group sneak into the jail where Papa Pandey is arrested and arrange for a fight so that Pandey gets injured and needs hospitalization. They trick George Antony and his subordinate Manikya Rao in order to take Papa with them, and escape. Unfortunately on the way Papa Pandey gets pushed off a cliff by Bhagyam when she tries to get him to eat her food. Papa Pandey barely survives, however he gets hit by a bus, killing him. Left with no choice Raju tricks Biju Pandey by changing Papa Pandey’s clothes and using strings to make him act like a puppet. Bhagyam and Meenakshi keep fighting between themselves while Raju and the remaining group struggle to keep peace.
Finally at a shootout between Pandey’s gang and their rival, Biju Pandey finds out that his brother Papa Pandey is dead but the group escapes with Akella. However they track them down where Raju expresses his frustration with both Bhagyam and Meenakshi and takes down the entire gang and kills Biju. At the end however Raju takes Akella with him instead of returning him to the CM and tells the CM that Raju’s teacher was humiliated and accused of a crime by an MLA, and demands that an apology be given, or news of Akella’s kidnapping would be leaked.
Raju’s teacher is exonerated, and Akella returns to the US. Raju and Bhagyam return home but to their shock Meenakshi is transferred to their village and is now their new neighbor, setting the scene for further trouble for Raju between his wife and his ex.
Production
Anil Ravipudi's third collaboration with Venkatesh after F2: Fun and Frustration and F3: Fun and Frustration was announced in July 2024. The film was produced by Sri Venkateswara Creations who also produced their earlier collaborations. Meenakshi Chaudhary and Aishwarya Rajesh were cast as the female leads. The title was announced as Sankrantiki Vasthunam in November 2024.Principal photography began on 11 July 2024. Filming took place in Rajahmundry, Tiruchirapalli, Hyderabad, Kasaragod, Koraput, Dehradun, Mussoorie and Rishikesh. The climax of the film was shot in Kadapa.