What if Money Heist was made in Tollywood? - Tharun Bhascker plays Professor in this hilarious take on the Spanish show

Netflix is finally making an honest attempt to understand its South Indian audiences better. As part of a promotional series around the release of the fifth season of the Spanish show Money Heist, the platform on Saturday unveiled a hilarious video, 'What if Money Heist was made in Tollywood', that provides an alternative take on the show featuring iconic characters from Telugu films over the years. Tharun Bhascker turns 'Professor' in the video where characters from films like Narasimha, Robo, Arundhathi, Chandramukhi, Jagadekaveerudu Athiloka Sundari and Baahubali make an appearance.

Professor here aims to loot money from a popular bank in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad and believes that these characters from various films can distract the staff and the customers in the bank. He funnily remarks, 'You all have been so jobless and penniless over the years without films or sequels. So, you would need the money.' The characters include Neelambari from Narasimha, Chitti from Robot, Pasupathi from Arundhathi, Mahadrashta from Jagadekaveerudu Athiloka Sundari and finally Bhallaladeva from Mahishmathi.

Each of the characters is given code names according to the places they are based out of, from Vizag to Mehboobnagar to Gadwal, Kadapa, Srikakulam and Mahishmathi. Professor, while giving out instructions to the characters, suddenly starts talking in Spanish and utters phrases like 'Bella Ciao', leaving them confused. He funnily instructs them to refer to the subtitles then. Tharun Bhascker is a hoot with his deadpan humour and mouths the most hilarious one-liners with a straight face.

While discussing the modus operandi of the heist, Pasupathi is asked to divert the bank watchman with his weird avatar. Chitti goes to the extent of saying that he'll blast the bank if the need arises. Chandramukhi is instructed to distract the customers with her strange dance moves. Mahadrashta is told to splash turmeric on the cashier. When one of them utters Bella Ciao again, Bhallaladeva retorts, 'Naaku chaavu ledu' (Ciao, when pronounced in Telugu, means death). There's confusion all around but Professor advises everyone to focus well for the heist to go as planned.

The team wearing a bunch of masks go as per their plan, only to realise that they've been conned all along. The characters fume with anger and warn that the Professor has to pay a price for his betrayal. Professor, as cool as a cucumber, walks away with the money and asks viewers to watch the five seasons of the show on Netflix. But for the fact that three of the iconic characters in the video are from dubbed films, this is a hilarious take on Money Heist in Telugu. Sunayana, Raghavendra are among the other popular faces in the video, reprising the roles of Chandramukhi and Chitti respectively.

A talented team put together this promotional video for Netflix. The concept was created by The RabbitHole Agency, while it was directed by well-known filmmaker Mallik Ram, with cinematography by Sajeesh Rajendran. Edited by Pradeep, the crew also comprises art director Chandrika Gorrepati, colorist Kalyan Chakravarti, costume designer Lanka Santoshi and composer Gurramkonda Vishal Bharadwaj. Sloka Akula is the creative producer of the same. The video gets its partly-comic, partly-sarcastic tone absolutely right and one hopes the streamer is as enthusiastic in promoting its regional content in the times to come.