Salaar’s first single: Ravi Basrur’s soothing track Sooreede is all about Deva and Varadha’s bond

Ravi Basur literally did a number on fans who were waiting for the first single from Salaar: Ceasefire. Expecting a pulsating track that would be all about elevation, much like the songs from KGF: Chapter 1 and 2, the music man gave audiences a slow and soothing number sung beautifully by Harini Vaituri, the lyrics of which firmly established the strong bond between Deva (Prabhas) and Varadaraja Mannar (Prithviraj), right from childhood. With only the slightest instrumental accompaniment, Ravi let the singer do all the heavy-lifting.

Director Prashant Neel had earlier said that Salaar is a film about two friends who eventually turn foes and the first part, Ceasefire, will focus on the bond that the duo share. How and why Deva becomes Varada’s one-man army, who will protect his friend, no matter what, will be the focus and that comes across in the first song that the team has released. Although Prashant has repeatedly said that contrary to rumours, Salaar is not the remake of Ugramm, the visuals from the song and the lyrics have fuelled that line of thought of again. In fact, Ravi had earlier said that Salaar was the remake of Ugramm, but that Prashant would make it differently, given that he had a bigger star and canvas to play with.

Salaar: Ceasefire, which was meant to be in theatres on September 28, but was then pushed ahead owing to post-production delays, is now less than 10 days away from its date with audiences. The film is releasing on December 22, a day after Shah Rukh Khan’s Dunki and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman-2 come out. So far, only overseas pre-bookings have been opened for Salaar and the initial predictions by trade experts is that the Prabhas-led film is outdoing Shah Rukh in most of the markets. Advance booking in India will open on December 15, as per the production house, Hombale Films.