Updated on: Oct 08, 2025 01:51 pm IST
Malla Reddy says Harish Shankar approached him to play the villain in Pawan Kalyan-starrer Ustaad Bhagat Singh. Here’s why he said no.
Politician and businessman Malla Reddy is frequently invited as a chief guest to movie events, with his speeches often eliciting laughter or raising eyebrows. In an interview with TV9, he revealed that his association with Tollywood did not stop there and that he was even offered ₹3 crore to play the villain in Pawan Kalyan’s next film. Here’s why he turned it down.
Malla Reddy on turning down Pawan Kalyan film
Reddy stated in the interview that Harish approached him to play the villain in Ustaad Bhagat Singh, but that he wasn’t interested in playing the template role. “Harish Shankar approached me to play the villain in Pawan Kalyan’s film. He spoke to me for an hour at my college and even offered me a remuneration of ₹3 crore. I told him I am not interested in playing the villain. If I play the villain, I will yell at the hero till the interval. In the second half of the film, he will beat me up,” he said, making his family and the anchor crack up.
This is not the first time Reddy has spoken about the director approaching him about the project. At the teaser launch of Memu Famous in 2023, he spoke vaguely about it, although he then shifted his focus to discussing the production of films soon. He said, “Harish Shankar tried to convince me for an hour and a half to play the villain.” When the crowd started screaming ‘hero’ in jest, he laughed and replied, “I won’t play a hero because you’ll get bored with me, you can’t see me like that. After the elections, I want to start producing some good Telangana films.”
About Ustaad Bhagat Singh
Ustaad Bhagat Singh is directed by Harish and produced by Mythri Movie Makers. It stars Pawan and Sreeleela in lead roles. It is an adaptation of Atlee’s 2016 Vijay-starrer Theri, which was recently also remade in Hindi with Varun Dhawan as Baby John. The film is expected to be released in theatres in 2026. Pawan, who is now the Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has yet to announce any other upcoming films. He was most recently seen in Hari Hara Veera Mallu and They Call Him OG.
