Teja Sajja’s Mirai, produced by TG Vishwa Prasad and Krithi Prasad of People Media Factory, is scheduled for release on September 12, 2025. The movie, directed by Karthik Gattamneni, features Manoj Manchu as the antagonist. The hype is solid, and ahead of the release, producer TG Vishwa Prasad interacted with the media, and here is the transcript.
How has your film journey been?
We started in 2017, but had releases in 2018. The journey started well, with many films doing well. There were only a few flops back then, but 2024 turned out to be a huge disappointment. Mirai will mark PMF’s comeback after a few setbacks.
What element in the story impressed you the most?
During my childhood, I used to read Amar Chitra Katha storybooks. They are fantasy stories derived from our Itihasas — the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Mirai will remind you of those stories. It features a battle between a protagonist who tries to stop a powerful antagonist with evil powers. Our film is a blend of history and fiction.
Films like these are based on VFX and world-building. How will these aspects be in Mirai?
Basically, for larger-than-life event films, we need to create a new world, for which VFX is needed. In the future, AI will take over. There is some negative impression around AI, but whatever we use, we are creating something that isn’t present. AI is reducing the work time. Since Karthik is a DOP himself, things became easier. Around 60%–70% of the portions were filmed in physical locations, while the remaining part was created using technology.
How did you ensure believability in the proceedings?
Everything in the movie has a purpose. Not everything is shown in detail. The narrative will be fast-paced. We have shown only what was enough for the film. You can link any part of the film to another. We have connected the dots — be it the spiritual connection, a mother’s long-standing wish, or a person’s desire to acquire all the powers — everything has proper establishment and reasoning.
How did the collaboration with Karan Johar happen?
Basically, we want the film to reach a wider range of audiences across languages. We have our own office in Mumbai, and we could have distributed the film ourselves. But we thought of reaching out to Karan Johar, who can take the movie closer to the Hindi audience. He is someone who has goodwill among the audience. He saw a few glimpses and showed significant interest in marketing the movie.
Recently, big-scale films focused only on visuals, leaving out emotions. How was this aspect handled for Mirai?
We need to deliver in 2 hours and 40 minutes. To convey stronger emotions, the narrative should also be longer. The right way is to balance emotions and content. Mirai’s narrative is solid from start to finish. The entire flow is perfect, and the emotions are balanced. We can’t make Mirai a three-and-a-half-hour film. Teja isn’t a Prabhas, NTR, Ram Charan, or Chiranjeevi sir. People are fine watching them for that long.
Will Mirai have paid premieres?
We have to check with the distributors. As of now, we want to come on the 12th. For this film, I could have easily opted for ticket rate hikes because of its scale. Audiences will watch the movie in the first weekend, irrespective of prices. The visuals will make one feel like Mirai is an Rs. 200 crore film, but we haven’t spent that much. Hence, I didn’t opt for hikes.