Kannappa 2025 | Vishnu Manchu | Mohanlal | Akshay Kumar | Prabhas | Kajal Aggarwal | Preity Mukhundhan | Mohan Babu | R. Sarathkumar | Madhoo

The film, based on the legend of Kannappa—a devotee of god Shiva—took nearly a decade to materialize. In December 2013, actor, screenwriter and director Tanikella Bharani told the media that he was working on the pre-production of a 14th century period drama film titled Bhaktha Kannappa, with Sunil cast in the title role. In June 2015, actor-producer Vishnu Manchu announced that his production company, 24 Frames Factory, would partner with an American company to produce a film titled Kannappa Katha, with Bharani attached as director. According to reports, Bharani sold his screenplay of Bhaktha Kannappa to Manchu after years of trying to find a producer. Manchu then brought in additional writers to revise and adapt the script as needed.According to Manchu, the decision to move forward with the film was made in January 2023. Kannappa was officially launched with a pooja ceremony on 18 August 2023 at Srikalahasteeswara temple in Srikalahasti. Mukesh Kumar Singh, known for directing Mahabharat (2013) on Star Plus, was brought on board as the director. The film was produced by Vishnu's father, Mohan Babu, under the companies 24 Frames Factory and AVA Entertainments. At the time of the launch, the story was reported to be developed by Paruchuri Gopala Krishna, Thota Prasad, Sainath Thotapalli, and Sai Madhav Burra. In September, Manchu stated that Parachuri, Thota, Thotapalli, V. Vijayendra Prasad, G. Nageswara Reddy, and G. Eshwar Reddy were "instrumental in developing a script". In the film's first-look poster, Manchu is listed as the writer, while the "story development" credits were attributed to Paruchuri Gopala Krishna, Eshwar Reddy, G. Nageswara Reddy, and Thota Prasad. The story is set in the second century CE. To make the dialogues more accessible to contemporary audiences, Manchu chose to avoid using chaste Telugu dialect.