Allu Arjun calls DC a Tamil classic, a day after Mahesh Babu's rave

Telugu cinema’s two biggest stars watched DC within a day of each other, and both came away sounding like fans. Mahesh Babu went first, calling Arun Matheswaran’s film original and outstanding. By the next morning Allu Arjun had gone a step further and reached for the word “classic”.

Mahesh Babu kept his post short: “What an original and outstanding film. Just too cool… Loved every bit of it!! Congrats to the entire team.” Arun Matheswaran replied within hours. “Thank you so much, sir! This truly means a lot to me. Seeing you watch and appreciate DC is incredibly special. Really grateful for your love and kind words,” the director wrote, while Anirudh Ravichander added his own thanks under the post.

Allu Arjun’s post was the fuller review. “Watched #DC! It’s a Tamil classic. Every film lover must watch it. It’s poetry for those who get it,” he wrote, before working his way through the credits: “highest respect” for Arun Matheswaran, Anirudh hailed as an “absolute master booster”, the filmmaking called technically brilliant, and a specific word of praise for Wamiqa Gabbi. The warmest line went to the film’s leading man. Allu Arjun addressed Lokesh Kanagaraj as “my director” and called him his “biggest pillar of support”.

That phrasing is the fun part. Allu Arjun’s next film, AA23, is Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Telugu directorial debut, produced by Mythri Movie Makers with Anirudh scoring. So the actor he just watched carry a Tamil film is the man about to run his sets for the next year, and the praise doubles as a public vote of confidence in the partnership.

DC has been collecting endorsements since it released on August 7, with Sivakarthikeyan among the earlier names to salute Anirudh’s album. The film puts Lokesh Kanagaraj in front of the camera for the first time as Devadas, an outsider who ends up shielding a family from a vindictive police force, with Wamiqa Gabbi and Sanjana Krishnamoorthy alongside him. It is Arun Matheswaran’s fourth feature after Rocky, Saani Kaayidham and Captain Miller, and his first at this scale: the Sun Pictures production crossed ₹50 crore within ten days and is now chasing the ₹100 crore mark.

Both admirers have their own reasons to keep an eye on this camp. Mahesh Babu is deep into Varanasi with SS Rajamouli, while Allu Arjun’s other big swing, Raaka with Atlee, sits at Sun Pictures, the studio that just banked DC’s run.