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Action thriller movies led by huge superstars and mounted on a huge budget are nothing new, certainly not for Tollywood. Every year, tons of such movies are released in cinemas, where many of them disappoint, while many actually turn out to be good. One such movie is the fresh release They Call Him OG film, led by Pawan Kalyan and Emraan Hashmi (in his Tollywood debut). The film is directed by Sujeeth, known for directing Saaho, and produced under the banner of DVV Entertainment. The OG release date is 25 September 2025.
While the year 2025 has not seen many memorable movies coming from Tollywood, read our OG movie review to know if the action entertainer stands out among the other releases of the year or turns out to be something generic like them all.
Is The Plot of They Call Him OG Good?
The plot of They Call Him OG (2025) Telugu film, is a very conventional and predictable one where every scene makes you think that you have watched something like this before. Here, the plot starts with Ojas Gambheera or OG (Pawan Kalyan), who survives a raid at a Samurai Dojo in Japan while the others are massacred by the Yakuza. He escapes on a ship which is used by Satya Dada (Prakash Raj) and Vardhaman Mirajkar (Tej Sapru), who are planning to build a port with the gold they brought, and arrives at Bombay. On the ship, OG saves the two from a gang of thieves and joins Satya Dada to build and protect his port. Mirajkar later breaks the partnership with Satya Dada, plots to take over the port with his son, Jimmy (Emraan Hashmi), who is being protected by OG.
All About They Call Him OG
Ratings of They Call Him OG : | IMDb Rating: 7.2/10 |
Cast: | Pawan Kalyan, Emraan Hashmi, Priyanka Mohan, Arjun Das, Sriya Reddy |
Songs: | They Call Him OG, Suvvi Suvvi Lyric, Guns and Roses |
Movie Duration: | 2 hours 24 minutes |
Date on Screen (in Cinemas): | 25 September 2025 |
OG Release Year: | September 2025 |
Streaming on OTT/Movie Channel/YouTube: | N/A |
Trailers/Clips: | 22 September 2025 |
Director: | Sujeeth |
Dialogues Writer: | Sujeeth |
Screenplay: | Sujeeth |
Music Director: | Thaman S |
Genre: | Action/Thriller |
Visual/VFX Supervisor: | N/A |
What is The OG Rating?
Inside Box Office Rating: 1.5/5
Budget: Rs 250 crore
Total box office: Currently in Cinemas
IBO Verdict: Currently in Cinemas
How Are The Performances of The OG Cast?
Pawan Kalyan, as the titular OG, has delivered a great performance full of endless moments of swag and style as was required for such an action movie.
Emraan Hashmi is very decent, certainly not on the level of what you would expect from an actor like him. Unfortunately, he is a wasted casting.
Prakash Raj stays constant as a storyteller for most of the part of OG, like he has stood in the recent years in movies like Devara and KGF Chapter 2. Hence, his performance is decent.
Others like Priyanka Mohan, Arjun Das, Sriya Reddy, and the whole supporting cast barely get any time to shine. Whatever moments of spotlight they got, the rest of the cast that they form has been okayish in their performance.
What Are The Goods and Bads in They Call Him OG?
Director Sujeeth has succeeded in giving the perfect fan service treatment to Pawan Kalyan, but has failed in making a truly good and entertaining film. OG starts on a very powerful and interesting note where the film sets its background in Japan, which is forced into the story, but is supported by a great narration, crisp visuals, all of it till the title card appears. After that, it soon starts disappointing you as the plot of OG follows a very generic pattern of characters behaving and events unfolding that we have grown tired of watching by now. A generic plot needs some emotions, drama, and conflicts among the characters for the audience to be invested in it, where OG and director Sujeeth fail.
The first half of OG is entirely spent in a buildup with back-to-back flashbacks, nullifying the impact of the present scenes. Additionally, the action choreography in this action movie is very lazily done, way worse than the director’s last venture, Saaho. The VFX is poor, while the fight sequences are very loosely shot and edited with no emotions backing them, which is a missed opportunity to make the action scenes better.
In a movie like Animal, a single person solely killing hundreds of armed men feels real and convincing only because of the emotions backing the sequence, which, in this case, was the lead protecting his father. In front of it, action sequences in OG feel like just mindless killings. However, this thing is taken care of for once, but only in the climax, where the lead character, Gambheera, expresses his emotional vulnerability as the scene involves his daughter.
Emraan Hashmi as the antagonist Jimmy, is a loosely written character and doesn’t even feel like a genuine threat, neither physically nor mentally, due to the countless number of elevation scenes for the protagonist Gambheera you have witnessed in the recent hours. Hence, it can be clearly said that Emraan Hashmi’s Telugu film industry debut has been wasted.
What Are The Positives of OG?
There are very few positive points to talk about in the OG film reviews, and they are the mass elevation blocks Pawan Kalyan has got. Though there are tons of them, they all feel powerful only because of the background score and Pawan Kalyan’s swag. Even the background score feels monotonous at a point; one has heard enough of it.
Is They Call Him OG Entertaining?
They Call Him OG is definitely not entertaining and stands way far away from the point to be even called a good film. It is made on a similar template as Ajith Kumar’s Good Bad Ugly, a Tamil movie released in 2025, with the difference being that the Ajith Kumar starrer was a way better movie due to emotions and drama between the leading characters.
The only thing that OG focuses on is the presentation of its lead hero, which only becomes better and better as the film keeps running. However, there is nothing in either the first or the second half that can hold you or engage you. The film is purely made for Pawan Kalyan fans and definitely not for the neutral audience who goes in front of the screening in hopes of entertainment. In totality, the movie review OG speaks barely any good about the film. The IMDb OG review is currently at 7.2/10 and is sure to go way lower due to the film being a disappointing product, as per the majority of the OG public review.
Box Office Opening Note
As was expected from the massive hype for They Call Him OG, the film took an opening of Rs 92.34cr in India gross. In India, the film collected Rs 79cr in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Rs 9.50cr in Karnataka, Rs 1.75cr in Tamil Nadu, Rs 9 lacs in Kerala, and Rs 2cr in the rest of India. At the overseas box office, They Call Him OG grossed $4.80M (Rs 42.50cr). With such huge figures, the Pawan Kalyan starrer became the highest opening day grosser of 2025 in India. The film’s massive Day 1 sum of Rs 134.84cr worldwide gross made it the second-highest opening Indian movie at the worldwide box office behind Coolie.
