Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya (stylized as Agent Sai) is a 2019 Indian Telugu-language black comedy mystery thriller film directed by Swaroop R. S. J., who co-wrote the film with Naveen Polishetty. The film stars Polishetty as the title character alongside Shruti Sharma in her Telugu debut. It follows a Nellore-based detective whose life runs into danger when he starts investigating the case of a dead body abandoned near a railway track.
The film was released theatrically on 21 June 2019 and received critical acclaim from the critics, where it became a commercial success at the box office. The film won three awards at Zee Cine Awards Telugu. It was remade in Tamil as Agent Kannayiram (2022).
Sai Srinivas Athreya is an amateur detective in Nellore who runs a small agency called the FBI (Fatima Bureau of Investigation) with his assistant Sneha, solving minor cases. Still affected by the sudden death of his mother, Athreya is drawn into a larger mystery when his friend Sirish informs him about an unidentified body found in Venkatachalam. When Athreya visits the location, he is arrested by Circle Inspector Gautham Krishna on suspicion of murder.
In prison, Athreya meets Maruthi Rao, who claims that his daughter Divya was raped and murdered after travelling to Ongole, and that the police falsely accused him. He gives Athreya three phone numbers belonging to Ajay, Harsha, and Vasudha, whom Divya had contacted before her death. Athreya and Sneha discover that Ajay and Harsha were in Ongole at the time of the murder, while Vasudha cannot be traced.
Athreya later spots a woman resembling Divya on a highway, though she does not recognize him. Investigating further, he discovers that Maruthi Rao is actually a man named Gopalam. Soon after, Ajay and Harsha are murdered and Athreya is framed for the crimes. CCTV footage proving that he was in a sub-jail at the time secures him bail, but he has only five days to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, a complaint about a missing girl named Vasudha leads the police to believe she is also dead.
Athreya encounters another amateur detective, Bobby, who initially believes Athreya is the murderer after being misled by false information. Working together, they uncover a pattern of unidentified bodies dumped along railway tracks between Kakinada and Tada. Athreya deduces that the bodies are being transported on a goods train from Chennai to Delhi and dumped near railway lines before being cremated by railway authorities if unclaimed.
With the help of Sub-Inspector Vamsi, Sneha, and Bobby, Athreya travels to Arambakkam in Tamil Nadu after faking his death to evade those pursuing him. There, he captures Gopalam, who confesses that he was hired by an organization to collect bodies from Hindu families under the pretense of performing last rites in Varanasi. Instead, the bodies were dumped along railway tracks. Athreya realizes the same scheme was used with his own mother's body. The group had been stealing fingerprints from corpses to commit crimes.
Further investigation reveals that Ajay, Harsha, and Vasudha were criminology students researching religious crimes in India. Athreya eventually deduces that Vasudha is alive and orchestrated the entire operation. To silence Ajay and Harsha, who were uncovering the truth, she had them murdered and attempted to frame Athreya.
Athreya tracks Vasudha to Karni Mata Temple in Rajasthan, where she and her father are arrested and handed over to the Nellore police. After bidding farewell to Bobby, Athreya and Sneha pay their respects at a crematorium before returning to their small detective agency, continuing their work and hinting at future cases.
The lead actor Naveen Polishetty explained that when he was looking for some good scripts, the director Swaroop contacted him on Facebook and told him the film's title and about the protagonist. When he narrated the whole story, Polishetty agreed to do the film if they got to work together on the final version. Swaroop agreed and they met in Hyderabad, where Polishetty's 4 years of experience as a writer helped him and they together worked on the script for eight months.
The soundtrack was composed by Mark K Robin and the cinematography was handled by Sunny Kurapati. The film was produced by the Malli Raava-fame Rahul Yadav Nakka.
The film's only song is "Sherlock Holmes", composed by Mark K Robin. It has two versions: one sung by Anurag Kulkarni, and another by Harika Narayan.
The film was released theatrically on 21 June 2019.
Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya received critical acclaim from the critics and audience.
Film Companion Karthik Keramulu called it the best comedy thriller of the decade. Times of India critic Neehitha Nyayapati gave it 4 stars out of 5, praising Polishetty's performance and the execution. A reviewer from The Hans India gave the film 4 stars out of 5, praising the performances, music and screenplay while criticising the slow-paced narration in the first half. A Deccan Chronicle critic similarly gave it 4 stars out of 5, calling it a "Telugu Sherlock Holmes" while praising the performances, background score and the cinematography. Krishna Sripada of The News Minute gave it 4 stars out of 5, and calling it a "textbook crime drama", praised the plot and cinematography but criticised some dubbing mismatches, Sharma's "undermined" character in the second half and editing towards the end.
The film also received appreciation from several Telugu film celebrities like director K. Raghavendra Rao and actors Allu Arjun and Varun Tej.
Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya performed well in India and USA and was declared a super hit for this modest budget of 1 crore. The film was given a limited theatrical release and due to strong word of mouth in its full run the film grossed over 20 crore globally.
The film's;digital rights were sold to Amazon Prime Video.
Following the film's success, the makers announced the film's extension into a trilogy. The film was remade in Tamil as Agent Kannayiram, and a Malayalam remake is in development.