OTTplay Awards 2025: Roaring Star Sriimurali wins Trailblazer of the Year (Male) for the film Bagheera

Kannada cinema’s Roaring Star Sriimurali set a new benchmark for Sandalwood with his 2024 film, Bagheera, which explored the vigilante-superhero archetype. Produced by Hombale Films, the film was not only a box office success, but also became the first Kannada film in a very long time to find a streaming home on Netflix. Sriimurali was lauded for his performance in the Dr Suri directorial, which was based on a story by Ugramm, KGF and Salaar maker Prashant Neel.

Sriimurali’s high-octane performance in the action-packed superhero drama Bagheera earned him the Trailblazer of the Year award at the OTTplay Awards 2025 in Mumbai on March 22, 2025. Sriimurali, who received his award from Akshay Oberoi and Anil Kumar at the show hosted by Aparshakti Khurana and Kubra Sait, said, “Thank you so much. Feels really good. Thank you OTTplay Awards for the recognition. Will continue giving good movies. Thank you Hindustan Times and everyone. Cheers."

Bagheera had Sriimurali in the role of an earnest cop whose efforts to clean up his jurisdiction and rid it of all evil are stopped by his superior officers. Disillusioned with the system, he pretends to abide by these orders, but secretly sets off on a mission to finish what he set out to do, albeit as the masked vigilante/superhero Bagheera.

From Sriimurali’s screen presence, to KGF’s Garuda Ram’s introduction, Ajaneesh Loknath’s music, Dr Suri’s deft execution and more, a lot of elements in Bagheera received praise from audiences. Some even went to the extent of calling it Sriimurali’s career-best performance. Given that the film ends with the promise that Bagheera will be back and that the makers were hopeful of turning it into a franchise, it may not be long before Sriimurali turns masked crusader again.

OTTplay Awards 2025, co-presented by Real Juices and Kühl BLDC Fans and powered by StockGro, in association with Flipkart spoyl, DPauls.com, Amante, Propshop, Aussie Lamb and Krishii Fiber, saw the who’s who of India’s OTT universe, across languages, in attendance. The One Nation One OTT award night saw the likes of Kani Kusruti, Manoj Bajpayee, Priya Mani, Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar and many others being felicitated.