Development and casting

Initially Sampath Nandi narrated a story, which is based on the education in India. The film was officially announced in September 2019 and was launched in October 2019, with a formal pooja ceremony.

Tamannaah Bhatia was announced to be part of the cast, in September 2019.^[4] Sampath has auditioned over 700 girls, after which two teams of 24 players were cast. In an interview to Deccan Chronicle, director Sampath Nandi told: "I have hired four national players, and trained them in acting. And it was with great difficulty that I finally managed to select the rest of the players," adding that “We all underwent training for three months on the basics of the sport, the rules, techniques, and strategies."^[5] In January 2020, Bhumika Chawla joined the production.^[6] It was reported that she will be playing the role of Gopichand's sister.^[7] Digangana Suryavanshi was cast to a play a news journalist.^[8]

Filming and post-production

Principal photography of the film began in December 2019.^[9] In the same month 15 days of first schedule of filming was done. Then the second schedule began in January 2020 and lasted till March 2020, before the production stopped due to the first lockdown in India due to COVID-19 pandemic.^[10] As of August 2020, 60% of the filming was completed.^[11] After pausing the filming due to COVID-19 pandemic in India, it was announced that the filming will be resumed in the second week of August 2020.^[12] Later, it was again postponed and resumed in Hyderabad in November 2020.^[13][14] The film was in the final schedule of the filming,^[15][16] with the crew moving to Jaisalmer, Rajasthan in February to shoot a few scenes.^[17] After wrapping the shoot in Jaisalmer, the team returned to Hyderabad in the same month, for filming the song "Jwala Reddy".^[18] Filming was wrapped up in March 2021.

Tamannaah completed her part of dubbing for the film in March 2021.^[19] Sound design of the film was completed in August 2021.

Theatrical

The filmmakers planned a release in mid 2020, but production was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[24] Initially scheduled to release on 2 April 2021, it was postponed to 3 September 2021,^[25][26] due to delay in the post-production work.^[27] Later, it was again rescheduled and theatrically released on 10 September 2021 coinciding with the festival of Vinayaka Chaviti.^[28] It lasted 138 minutes and was certified CBFC U/A.^[29]

Home Media

The film was released on Disney+ Hotstar on 15 October 2021.^[30][31] and satellite rights were sold to Gemini TV.

Critical reception

Ram Venkat Srikar of Cinema Express called Seetimaarr a "fairly enjoyable potboiler." He said that though the film was filled with masala film tropes like unrestrained heroism, unabashed action sequences and problematic politics, the narrative style in the second half was rather fresh.^[32] The Times of India critic Thadhagath Pathi also shared a similar opinion, writing "The mass masalaness of it all truly make us ignore the many flaws in Seetimaarr which have nothing to do with the fact that there's a strong script backing it. This film is a paisa vasool (transl. value for money) one in this OTT era."^[33]

In another positive review, The Hindu critic Y. Sunita Chowdhary wrote: "The crime elements and kabbadi portions blend well with good writing and performances, to deliver an action-packed entertainer." She praised Nandi's direction and his handling of production design, music and cinematography. Chowdhary, however, found Tamannaah's Telangana dialect "unsettling" and felt that someone else could have dubbed for her.^[34] A reviewer from The Hans India stated: "Despite having a regular story, the director has succeeded in grabbing the attention with the entertainment. Though the second half and pre-climax are not up to the mark, the film delivers a good message in an entertaining way."^[35]

Appreciating the performances of Gopichand and Tamannaah, Anji Shetty of Sakshi rated the film 2+3⁄4 stars out of 5. He said that barring over-the-top action sequences, Nandi has succeeded in making an engaging sports film with a message.^[36] A reviewer from Eenadu also appreciated the cast, particularly Tamannaah's diction of Telangana dialect. While praising the music, cinematography and production, they felt that the screenplay could have been better.^[37]

Box office

The film was made on a budget of ₹25 crore.^[1] Theatrical rights of the film were sold for ₹11.5 crore. The film grossed ₹15.1 crore worldwide in 8 days, earning distributors a share of ₹8.98 crore.^[2]

It has grossed ₹4.75 crore on its opening day in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with a distributors' collection of ₹2.98 crore.^[38][39] In contrast, trade analyst Kaushik LM reported that the film has collected a distributors' share of ₹3.5 crore, on its opening day.^[40]