Vijay Sethupathi stars as a visually impaired beggar who doubles as a ruthless protector of slum communities in SlumDog: 33 Temple Road, the pan-India action drama written and directed by Puri Jagannadh. The film arrives in theatres on June 19 in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, and Malayalam, marking one of the most ambitious collaborations between Tamil and Telugu cinema this year.
The official teaser, released on June 8 from Puri Jagannadh’s YouTube channel, runs nearly two minutes and introduces Sethupathi’s character with a voiceover that speaks on behalf of homeless people and street dwellers pushed to the margins of society. What begins as quiet desperation turns violent when powerful enemies attempt to destroy everything around him, forcing the blind beggar to shed his passivity and take up arms against his oppressors in a revenge-driven narrative that the makers have described as “raw streets, real scars, ruthless emotions.”
Puri Jagannadh, whose filmography includes the Telugu blockbusters Pokiri and iSmart Shankar, appears to be shifting toward a grittier register with SlumDog. Rather than the high-octane masala template that defined his recent work, the teaser signals a story anchored in the lived experience of India’s urban poor, with Sethupathi’s character embodying both their vulnerability and their capacity for resistance. The actor completed dubbing for the teaser himself in all three languages, underlining his commitment to the pan-India release strategy.
The ensemble cast draws from across Indian cinema. Tabu, one of the most decorated actresses in Hindi cinema, co-stars in what marks a rare Telugu-language appearance. Samyuktha Menon has spoken publicly about playing a character unlike anything she has attempted before. Kannada star Duniya Vijay, Telugu comedy veterans Brahmaji and VTV Ganesh, and veteran actress Zarina Wahab round out the supporting cast. The cross-industry casting mirrors a broader trend in South Indian cinema, where stars are increasingly working across language boundaries in projects designed to travel nationally.
Harshavardhan Rameshwar, the composer behind the Pushpa and Animal franchises, scores the film. The production is backed by Puri Jagannadh and Charmme Kaur under their Puri Connects banner in association with JB Motion Pictures, with JB Narayan Rao Kondrolla serving as co-producer.
SlumDog enters a fiercely competitive June 19 release window. The same date sees Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s Telugu comeback Maa Inti Bangaaram and Chidambaram’s Cannes-screened Balan: The Boy competing for screens alongside Nikhil Siddhartha’s long-delayed period action film Swayambhu. For Puri Jagannadh, who faced a commercial setback with Liger in 2022, the stakes are particularly high: a strong opening for SlumDog would reassert his position among Telugu cinema’s top directors and validate his bet on Sethupathi as a pan-India draw.
Vijay Sethupathi, meanwhile, continues to expand his range. The actor, who earned widespread acclaim for Maharaja in 2024, has built a career on choosing unconventional roles that resist easy classification. In SlumDog, the combination of a visually impaired protagonist, a street-level setting, and Puri Jagannadh’s propulsive direction promises the kind of high-concept genre film that Indian cinema rarely attempts at this scale.
