Vijay Deverakonda’s Hero launched, to co-star Petta girl Malavika Mohanan

Actor Vijay Deverakonda’s upcoming Telugu sports thriller Hero had its official launch ceremony on Sunday in Hyderabad. Directed by Anand Annamalai, the film will feature Malavika Mohanan, last seen in Rajinikanth’s Petta (2019), as the leading lady.

The launch event was graced by Koratala Siva as chief guests. He canned the first shot and handed over the bound script to the director to commence shoot.

The film is being bankrolled by Mythri Movie Makers, who only last month had announced that Hero will be released in all the south Indian languages, including Tamil.

Hero was initially expected to go on the floors on 22 April onwards in New Delhi. However, the shoot was postponed by a few weeks for reasons yet unknown. 

This will be Malavika’s third outing after Beyond the Clouds (2018) and Petta (2019). Hero is also expected to feature another heroine, but the makers are yet to officially sign anyone for the role.

In a recent interview to Indian Express, Malavika opened up on exploring opportunities across industries in different languages.  

“Now, I am open to doing films in any industry be it Telugu, Hindi, Tamil or Kannada. I think good cinema is good cinema. There are people in every industry I would love to work with. I have grown up and been inspired by Mani Ratnam, AR Rahman and even Rajinikanth. In Telugu, I think SS Rajamouli is kick-ass. So, I think it is silly for actors to restrain themselves to a particular industry. At the end of the day, I am okay working in any industry," she had said.

The rest of the cast and crew are yet to be revealed. The makers plan to commence shooting from later this month.