Vishnu Manchu is being honest about what went wrong with Kannappa. During a press meet in Hyderabad, the actor shared that some really good scenes had to be cut from the film because the visual effects (VFX) didn鈥檛 turn out well. Kannappa, directed by Mukesh Kumar Singh, hit theatres last Friday and got mixed reviews. While people liked the second half of the film and loved Prabhas鈥 special appearance, many weren鈥檛 happy with the VFX in certain scenes.
Vishnu said they had no choice but to remove some strong scenes during editing because the VFX didn鈥檛 match the quality they wanted.
At the press conference, Vishnu Manchu shared that he, director Mukesh Kumar Singh, and editor Anthony decided to remove a few scenes from Kannappa because the VFX didn鈥檛 meet their standards. 鈥淭he editor, director, and I sacrificed some excellent scenes in the film because the VFX was not on the level we expected it to be,鈥 he said.
Vishnu claimed that it was a good lesson for him. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a massive lesson for me, though. It鈥檚 such a lesson that I鈥檒l never repeat that mistake again. But a lot of people watching the film didn鈥檛 even realise it. The team was happy that no one cared about it,鈥 said Vishnu.
Kannappa was released in multiple languages includin Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi. But so far, its strongest performance has been in the Telugu market.
For Vishnu Manchu, Kannappa marks a major career milestone. It has already become his best-performing film to date. His previous outings, Ginna and Mosagallu, failed to cross even Rs 1 crore in lifetime earnings. The last time Vishnu saw a notable opening was way back in 2014 with Rowdy, which earned Rs 3 crore on Day 1 and ended its first week at around Rs 11 crore.
A review by News18 of Kannappa read, 鈥淭he whole sequence and the visual effects are superbly done, an example of how far our cinema has evolved technologically. Back in the day, the same scene would鈥檝e involved golden cardboard arrows moving at less than 24 frames per second. One arrow would spew fire, the opponent鈥檚 would quench it with water. If one turned into a snake, the other would become its predator, an eagle. Mukesh Kumar Singh鈥檚 Kannappa isn鈥檛 weighed down by such age-old silliness. Here, the fight sequences and visuals look rich. However, if one were to read out the dialogues of Kannappa and any devotional film from the past one after the other, it would be hard to discern which is from 2025 and which is not.鈥
Kannappa is a 2025 Telugu-language mythological devotional film directed by Mukesh Kumar Singh. The film is based on the story of Kannappa, a legendary devotee of Lord Shiva from Hindu mythology. The script is penned by Vishnu Manchu, who also plays the lead role.
Produced by veteran actor Mohan Babu, Kannappa boasts an impressive star cast including Preity Mukhundhan, Kajal Aggarwal, Mohan Babu, R. Sarathkumar, Arpit Ranka, Brahmanandam, Brahmaji, Siva Balaji, Kaushal Manda, Rahul Madhav, Devaraj, Mukesh Rishi, Raghu Babu, and Madhoo in important supporting roles.