The Warriorr

In 2016, Tamil film director Lingusamy announced that he planned to make a bilingual film in Telugu and Tamil, marking his Telugu debut. He first approached Allu Arjun to star in the film, but the film was delayed due to Allu Arjun's busy schedule.[4] In 2019, Havish was cast as the lead, but the film never began production.[5] On 18 February 2021, it was announced that Ram Pothineni was brought on board the film, which was tentatively called RAPO19 with Srinivasa Chitturi producing the film under his banner Srinivasa Silver Screen.[6] The film marks the Tamil debut of Pothineni after Yen Endral Kadhal Enben!, the Tamil version of Endukante... Premanta! (2012), failed to have a theatrical release.[7] In January 2022, the film's title was announced as The Warriorr.[8][9][10]

In March 2021, it was announced that Krithi Shetty was cast aside Pothineni as the female lead.[11] In July 2021, the makers announced that Aadhi Pinisetty was cast as the main antagonist in the film.[12][13][14] In August 2021, it was announced that Akshara Gowda was signed on to play a pivotal role in the film.[15]

Since the film was a Telugu—Tamil bilingual, scenes involving Ram Pothineni and Aadhi Pinisetty were shot in both Telugu and Tamil.[16] Krithi Shetty's scenes were only shot in Telugu,[16] and Nadhiya's scenes were only shot in Tamil.[17] Principal photography for the film began on 13 July 2021 in Hyderabad and Chennai.[18][19][20][21] The second schedule of the film was completed in October 2021.[22] The third schedule began in January 2022 and filming was wrapped up at the end of May 2022.[23]

In March 2022, it was announced that the film was going to release theatrically on 14 July 2022.[25] The film's pre-release rights were sold for ₹43.10 crore, the highest for Pothineni's film to date.[26]

The television and digital distribution rights were acquired by Star Network respectively. The film started streaming in Telugu on Disney+Hotstar from 11 August 2022.[27]

The Warriorr grossed ₹12.2 crore on its opening day, with ₹10.2 crore coming from the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.[28]

The Warriorr met with generally negative reviews from critics. Neeshita Nyayapati of The Times of India rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "The Warriorr is a masala-laden commercial pot-boiler that’s meant to be watched over a shared bucket of popcorn."[29] A critic for Pinkvilla rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "Some films are stuck in a time warp. The Warriorr goes beyond. Every nerve ending and blood vessel of the film is stuck in the past".[30]

A critic for Behindwoods rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "The Warriorr is a watchable police action entertainer with the hero and villain in fine form."[31] Bhuvanesh Chandar of The Hindu wrote after reviewing the film that "Lingusamy's long journey to find his redemption proves to be longer, and for Ram Pothineni, who wears his heart on the sleeve as Satya, it's another futile attempt and an unlucky debut in Tamil."[16]

Latha Srinivasan of Firstpost rated the film 1.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Director Lingusamy's Telugu debut starring Ram Pothineni is a mish-mash of his earlier films. The Warrior loses the battle even before setting foot on the battleground".[32] Balakrishna Ganeshan of The News Minute rated the film 1.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "The story being extremely superficial without any element of reality in it, also makes it a mediocre watch."[17] Janani K of India Today rated the film 1 out of 5 stars and wrote "The Warriorr is a film that has wasted crores of rupees on a story that we saw ages ago. Aadhi does a good job initially, but his role is reduced to a caricature."[33] Manoj Kumar R of The Indian Express rated the film 0.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Lingusamy has repeated the same movie that he has been making throughout his career with different actors and costumes, including the 'loosu ponnu' archetype".[34]