Naga Chaitanya and Sai Pallavi play lovers separated by fate in the first-look teaser of Chandoo Mondeti’s upcoming Telugu film Thandel, dropped by the makers on Saturday.

The two-minute-11-second-long teaser shows Chaitanya playing an Indian fisherman who along with his fellows accidentally venture into Pakistan and get imprisoned by authorities. Chaitanya must now break free to return to his love interest, played by Pallavi, in India.

While being held captive in Pakistan, Chaitanya delivers a bold dialogue highlighting his love for his motherland. “I’m going to say this while sitting in your Pakistani land…Hail, mother India,” he says to a jailer in front of several other prisoners, shedding light on the plight of fishermen who experience such accidents in real life.

Both Chaitanya and Pallavi had previously worked together in Sekhar Kammula’s 2021 film Love Story.

The shooting for Thandel, which has been dubbed as a patriotic movie by the makers, began at the end of December last year. “Team #Thandel begins an adrenaline pumping schedule in middle of the oceans Shoot in progress ,” mentioned the official X page of the movie on December 26, 2023.

Shamdat has worked on the cinematography for the film, while Devi Sri Prasad has composed the soundtrack. Produced by Bunny Vasu and Allu Aravind’s Geetha Arts, Thandel is currently in the process of shooting in Udupi of Karnataka, and the release date has not been announced yet.