Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya

Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Swaroop RSJ
Screenplay by	Swaroop RSJ Naveen Polishetty
Produced by	Rahul Yadav Nakka(Swadharm Entertainment)
Starring	Naveen Polishetty Shruti Sharma
Cinematography	Sunny Kurapati
Edited by	Amit Tripathi .
Music by	Mark K Robin
Production company	SWADHARM entertainment
Release date	21 June 2019 (2019-06-21)
Running time	148 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Budget	3 Crores

Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya is a 2019 Indian Telugu-language comedy thriller film written and directed by Swaroop RSJ and produced by Rahul Yadav Nakka. The film stars Naveen Polishetty in the lead titular role along with Shruti Sharma, Darbha Appaji Ambarisha and Suhas. It follows a Nellore-based detective whose life runs into danger when he starts investigating the case of a dead body abandoned near a railway track.

The film was released theatrically on 21 June 2019, and received generally positive reviews from critics. The screenplay, subject, humor and Polishetty's performance were praised, while the pacing was criticised. The film became a commercial success and was also praised by several Tollywood celebrities. Following the film's success, the makers announced the film's extension into a franchise.

Plot

Agent Sai Sreenivas Athreya(Naveen) wakes up in the middle of the night to a personal tragedy. He goes home from Bhopal.

3 years later, he is a detective in Nellore with his assistant sneha(Shruti Sharma) who helps him in cases. He does many small cases such as solving a temple robbery and trying to solve a murder. His informer Sirish informs him of a unidentified body in Venkatachalam. When Agent SSA goes there, the police arrest him. In jail, he meets Maruthi Rao who tells him the story of his daughter Divya, who went to Ongole and did not return. He gives the numbers of three people: Ajay, Harsha, and Vasudha.

Cast

• Naveen Polishetty as Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya
• Shruti Sharma as Sneha
• Shredha Rajagopalan as Vasudha
• Appaji Ambarisha Darbha as Vasudha's father
• Suhas P
• Ramdutt
• Krishneswar Rao
• Viswanath as Burger CI
• Chanakya Tejas
• Kranthi Priyan
• Suri K Chaplin
• Lavanya
• Mahija
• Sandeep Raj
• Vinu Varma

Production

In an interview with Idlebrain.com, the lead actor Naveen Polishetty explained that when he was looking for some good scripts, the director Swaroop contacted him on Facebook and told him the film's title and about the protagonist. When he narrated the whole story, Polishetty agreed to do the film if they got to work together on the final version. Swaroop agreed and they met at Hyderabad, where Polishetty's 4-year old experience as a writer helped him and they together worked on the script for eight months. The script was finalised in January 2018 and the shoot commenced in August 2018. After the film was wrapped, the release was delayed till June since the producer didn't want any competition with the big releases in April.

The soundtrack was composed by Mark K. Robin and the cinematography was handled by Sunny Kurapati. The film was produced by the Malli Raava fame Rahul Yadav Nakka.

Soundtrack

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Sherlock Holmes"	Anurag Kulkarni	4:06

Release

After receiving a U/A certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification, the film was released theatrically on 21 June 2019. In USA, the film was released on 20 June 2019.

Critical reception

Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya received generally positive reviews from critics.

Film Companion gave it a positive review and called it the best comedy thriller of the decade. Times of India gave it 4 stars out of 5, praising Polishetty's performance and the execution. The Hans India gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5, praising the performances, music and screenplay while criticising the slow-paced narration in the first half. Deccan Chronicle similarly gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 and praised the performances, background score and the cinematography. Fullhyd.com gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 and praised Polishetty's performance and comic timing, twists and the lack of commercial "trappings" but criticised the at-times dialogue-heavy nature and length of some sequences. Idlebrain.com gave the film 3.25 stars out of 5, praising the writing, technical aspects and the protagonist's characterisation while criticising the pacing in the second half. 123Telugu.com also gave it 3.25 stars out of 5 and praised the subject, Polishetty's performance, investigation scenes, humour and visual appeal while criticising the length and the last 15 minutes. Andhra Box Office gave the film 3 stars out of 5, praising the narration, twists and the whodunit theme while criticising the pace. Greatandhra.com gave it 3 stars out of 5 and praised the second half, humour and Polishetty's performance but criticised the initial sequences and felt it "defied logic". The News Minute gave it 3 stars out of 5, and calling it a "textbook crime drama", praised the plot and cinematography but criticised some dubbing mismatches, Sharma's "undermined" character in the second half and editing towards the end. Mirchi9 gave the film 3 stars out of 5, praising Polishetty's performance, writing and the second half while criticising the length, some "silly" initial humour and the production values.

Box office

Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya opened alongside several films at the Box office, and had low but the highest collections among all other releases on its opening day. Following the positive word of mouth and due to low screening costs, the film became a commercial success in both India and USA.

External links

• Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya at IMDb
• Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya on Box Office Mojo
• Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya on Fandango
• Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya on Atom Tickets