Mithra Mandali was in the red right from Day 1. After decent premieres in the Telugu States, the film ended up being a damp squib.
What lessons does its disastrous performance hold for the Telugu film industry? The first lesson is obvious. Don't make every buddy comedy about Jathi Ratnalu Lite. There are other shades of buddy comedy; explore them and come up with new situations.
The second lesson is this: Don't pluck the low-hanging fruit when it comes to casting. The recent Little Hearts did that and the freshness was evident. In Mithra Mandali, Rag Mayur was cast probably because the makers got a hint that he was sought-after for non-lead roles. Sorry but he was totally unfunny. Niharika NM was chosen just because she is a content creator; she looked older for the role and the makers didn't even notice something an AD with commonsense should have. Priyadarshi's casting, once again, was driven by his growth after Jathi Ratnalu, Balagam and a couple of other movies.
Mithra Mandali's sub-genre is "silly buddy comedy", where the silliness should ideally have been a plus. Director Vijayendar S misunderstood the genre because he was only rehashing a pre-existing template, not thinking originally.
