NTR Neel is 'bigger than' KGF and Salaar: Prashanth Neel film with Jr NTR has ‘no budget constraints’ | Exclusive

Jr NTR's upcoming film with KGF and Salaar director Prashanth Neel is set to dwarf even those pan-India blockbusters.

Updated on: Aug 29, 2025, 20:23:19 IST

By Abhimanyu Mathur

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Having delivered back-to-back pan-India blockbusters in KGF Chapter 2 and Salaar Part 1, filmmaker Prashanth Neel is now working on his most ambitious film yet. The yet-untitled film with Jr NTR in the lead has been dubbed 'NTR Neel' by fans and media. And if new murmurs are to be believed, the film is bigger than anything the filmmaker has mounted.

Jr NTR is collaborating with Prashanth Neel for the first time.

NTR Neel's scale

NTR Neel is still away from release, but a source close to the project exclusively tells HT that director Prashanth Neel is happy with how it is shaping up: “Prashanth Neel’s next with Jr NTR is his most ambitious and biggest project yet; even bigger than his pan-India blockbusters like KGF and Salaar. This is a film he has dreamt of making from the very beginning.”

While the source does not reveal much about the film beyond its scale, they add that Neel is now embarking on the film with 'no budget constraints'. “He feels that now is the right time, as he no longer has budget constraints and has also managed to bring on board his favourite actor, Jr NTR, to play the lead. Prashanth Neel is extremely happy with how the film is shaping up and says it is progressing beyond what he had even imagined,” adds the source.

All about the Jr NTR-starrer

Earlier, reports had claimed that the film may be titled Dragon, but the film's team has not confirmed that. In April this year, the official X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram account of NTR Neel announced on Tuesday that the film will be released in theatres on June 25, 2026. The first look announcement had been planned for Jr NTR's birthday in May, but it was postponed to make way for NTR's Bollywood debut, War 2. NTR Neel is one of the most-awaited projects in Telugu cinema. The film announced on Jr NTR’s birthday in 2022 went on floors earlier this year.

Jr NTR was most recently seen in Ayan Mukerji's War 2, which also starred Hrithik Roshan in the lead. The film received mixed reviews, and has grossed ₹350 crore worldwide in 15 days.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhimanyu Mathur
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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