Karuppu: A Warning Sign for Allu Arjun’s Raaka?

One of the biggest gambles in Allu Arjun and Atlee’s upcoming film Raaka may not actually be the scale or visuals. It could be the music.

For a pan-India spectacle reportedly mounted on a budget of over Rs. 800 crores, the team made a surprising decision by choosing relatively young composer Sai Abhyankkar to handle both the songs and background score. Naturally, the move created shockwaves because films of this scale are usually entrusted to senior composers with established commercial track records.

That is why industry observers closely watched Sai Abhyankkar’s recent projects like Dude and now Suriya’s Karuppu to understand what kind of musical identity he could bring to a massive film like Raaka.

Initially, Dude gave some confidence. While the songs were not huge chartbusters, Sai’s background score added freshness and energy to the film. It was not viewed as extraordinary work, but he had a modern sound style suited for younger commercial cinema.

However, after the release of Karuppu, discussions around Sai Abhyankkar have noticeably changed tone. The music turned out disappointing overall. Backlash is mainly focused on inconsistent background scoring, excessively loud sound design in parts of the second half, and weak audio mixing that reportedly drowned out dialogues in several scenes. While some BGM portions received appreciation, the overall musical impact failed to meet expectations for such a high-profile film.

The songs too failed to leave a strong impression, especially in Telugu, they lost emotional impact in translation.

This is exactly why Raaka has now entered the discussion. According to strong industry buzz, Allu Arjun himself was reportedly observing the response to Karuppu closely because it served as an important testing ground for Sai Abhyankkar before Raaka moves deeper into production.

For a large-scale action spectacle like Raaka, music and background score become extremely important for elevations, emotional payoff, and theatrical impact. After Pushpa: The Rise, audience expectations from Allu Arjun’s films have become enormous, and many now expect world-class theatrical packaging from his projects.

At the same time, it may still be too early to judge Sai Abhyankkar entirely based on one film. Younger composers often evolve rapidly under strong directors and large-scale productions. With Atlee and Allu Arjun involved, many believe there will naturally be heavy creative supervision to extract the best possible output.

Still, industry observers now see Raaka’s music as one of the film’s biggest question marks. Whether Sai Abhyankkar turns this pressure into a breakthrough moment or whether Karuppu becomes an early warning sign remains one of the most closely watched aspects surrounding the project.