Mark on OTT: Why didn’t Kiccha Sudeep’s latest cop thriller work as well as 2025’s Max?

Mark on OTT: The Christmas release Mark, directed by Max maker Vijay Kartikeyaa, is dropping on OTT on January 23, 2026. What went wrong for the Sudeep-led film?

Kiccha Sudeep in and as Mark

In early 2025, days after the release of Kiccha Sudeep’s collaboration with debutant director Vijay Kartikeyaa, which was well accepted by audiences, the duo announced their intention to work together again. Vijay said that he was toying with a couple of ideas, one of which could be a potential sequel to Max . Back then, a source had said that a Max sequel was unlikely, as Sudeep and producer Kalaippuli S Thanu apparently did not split on the best of terms, over issues including the release of the film.

Sudeep wanted Max in theatres closer to his birthday in September, and was feverishly working on the dubbing, including the Tamil and Telugu versions, but then the producer was not inclined to release it then. In fact, at a media briefing a few days prior to his 2025 birthday, Sudeep said he had no idea what the release plan of Max was. When it was eventually announced, Max was almost in a clash with Upendra’s UI, a window the actor was not keen on, but went ahead with.

Also read: Mark movie review: Kiccha Sudeep’s one-man army Mark is no match for Max

Did Vijay Kartikeyaa rechristen Max-2 as Mark?

So, when Vijay and Sudeep said they were doing another racy cop thriller, they maintained from the start that it would be about a different character and have nothing to do with Max. The buzz on social media, at the time, was that they’d rechristened the Max-2 script as Mark and made minimal changes. When the film then released for Christmas 2025, that was the exact sentiment that most audiences voiced – Mark feels like Max, but is not half as good.

Vijay had said that with Max, he had figured out the pulse of Kannada audiences, especially Sudeep fans and promised a far more exciting experience with mass elements in their newest collaboration. What he presented, though, came across as lazy bit of writing, sticking to the exact same formula that he followed in Max.

Here, Sudeep was Ajay Markandaya, yet another badass cop like Arjun Mahakshay, who has been suspended from duty at the behest of a corrupt politician. There’s a way for Markandaya aka Mark to put the politician in his place, for which, he has to retrieve a piece of evidence against the latter. Problem is that the mobile phone containing said evidence has gone missing, along with a young boy who was playing with it.

Also read: Mark on OTT: Ahead of streaming debut of Kiccha Sudeep’s latest cop caper, here’s how much it made in theatres

Turns out, several kids have been reported missing, including the daughter of the house help at Mark’s house, and he’s on a tight deadline to retrieve them, failing which, they will perish. While Max had to get rid of bodies and keep his subordinates safe without alerting the enemy to his machinations before day break, here, Mark is in a race against time to find out where the children are being held and rescue them before it is too late.

The problem here is that although Mark promises his mother that he will ensure nothing happens to the little girl, there is no context to his motivation. Vijay does not establish the nature of the relationship that his family has with the house help’s folks for Mark or the audience to be fully invested in the child’s disappearance and her safety.

During the promotions of Mark, Sudeep had said that the complaint about Max was that it did not have one formidable antagonist, which they had rectified this time around. Well, their solution was to stuff the film with multiple villains, none of who were impactful. There was Naveen Chandra, Guru Somasundaram, Vikranth, Shine Tom Chacko, Yogi Babu and Dragon Manju, among others, with characters that were flat and unremarkable, to say the least.

Armed with a bunch of good actors, Vijay failed to utilize them well enough. More so, in having Naveen, Vikranth, Yogi and Guru, the film felt more like a Tamil original dubbed in Kannada, than a straight Kannada movie. Reviews from Tamil Nadu reflected this view.

The worst bit has to be the characterisation of Mark. Audiences are meant to buy into the narrative that he is a brutal force of nature much like Max, which is fine, but then you also need to substantiate it by giving the hero challenging moments to establish this. Instead, he’s either driving, or talking on the phone and getting his team members to do stuff. Even the punchlines were missing this time around. No doubt, Sudeep has immense screen presence, but that hairdo is doing him no favours.

Mark the movie FAQs

Q. Is Mark the Max sequel?

A. There have been rumours that director Vijay Kartikeyaa rebranded the script for Max 2 as Mark, but the filmmaker has negated this, stating that the nuances of the character in Mark are very different from Max's Arjun Mahakshay.

Q. Who all are on the vast cast of Mark?

A. Mark stars Kiccha Sudeep, Guru Somasundaram, Naveen Chandra, Vikranth, Yogi Babu, Shine Tom Chacko, Gopalkrishna Deshpande, Mahantesh Hiremath, Dragon Manju, Roshni Prakash, Archana Kottige, Deepshika, among others.

Q. Where can one watch Mark?

A. Mark is currently in theatres, having released on December 25, 2025. The film's post-theatrical streaming rights are with JioHotstar (also available via OTTPlay Premium), and a January 23 premiere has been announced.

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