In Tatipalli, a hamlet in Telangana’s Medak district, a 21-year-old protagonist and his friends are on a hunt for a double-headed snake in a bid to make big money. The adventure comedy-drama is a coming-of-age story narrated in a rural Telangana setting. What has sparked interest in this indie Telugu film titled Double Engine, scheduled to release in theatres on January 5, is that it comes from Rohit Penumatsa and Sasi (aka Camp Sasi), who go by the screen name Rohit & Sasi. Their earlier films, produced by their in-house firm Avanti Cinema and available in the digital space, have been lapped up by cinephiles and their fame is nothing short of an underground phenomenon.
Produced by Siddharth Rallapalli and Vishwadev Rachakonda, who had backed Pareshan, Double Engine is a 110-minute Telugu film in the Telangana dialect. The film borrows its title from the slang used in the crime world, with reference to double-headed snakes.
Double Engine took shape in 2021 as an attempt to follow the journey of Muni, an aspiring actor. Hailing from Tatipalli, Muni would travel to Hyderabad for auditions. In his spare time, he would drive his brother-in-law’s seven-seater auto to make some money. He had cracked the auditions for the web series Kotha Poradu and also worked in Ram Gopal Varma’s (RGV) Aasha Encounter, which was based on the Disha encounter incident.
