Hunt out on two OTT platforms; will the cop drama resonate with streaming enthusiasts?

Hunt, the Telugu remake of the Malayalam hit Mumbai Police, starring Sudheer Babu, Srikanth, Bharath in key roles, opened to a tepid response in theatres and was removed from several screens well within the first week. The Mahesh Surapaneni directorial is now out on OTT within two weeks of its theatrical run. The cop drama is streaming on two platforms - aha and Amazon Prime Video.

The film revolves around a cop Arjun who experiences partial memory loss when he meets with an accident. The conflict deepens when he realises that he was solving a high-profile murder case involving his friend and ACP Aryan Dev. Arjun has another friend Mohan Bhargav, who stands by his side while he tries to nab the killer. Chitra Shukla, Goparaju Ramana, Manjula and Mounika Reddy too essay key roles in the drama.

While the original starring Mumbai Police (starring Prithviraj, streaming on Disney+ Hotstar) was a runaway success in Malayalam, the Telugu version was poorly received by audiences and critics alike. Going by the responses for the film on OTT on the premiere day, there are no encouraging signs for team Hunt. V Ananda Prasad had bankrolled the film under the popular banner Bhavya Creations.

It’s quite rare for a mainstream Telugu actor to take the plunge to play a homosexual in Hunt, though the idea wasn’t well appreciated across many quarters. Does this response indicate that the era of remakes is almost over? Many remakes in the recent past including Urvasivo Rakshasivo, Godfather, Butta Bomma, Ori Devuda haven’t performed as per expectations either.

Psychological thriller/drama is a genre that has barely found takers in Telugu cinema over the years and Hunt’s rejection further validates the same. Ghibran scored the music for the film while Arul Vincent was the cinematographer. Prawin Pudi edited the film and Vivek Annamalai was the art director respectively.