Dada first song Dada Dhamaka out on 13 November: Balakrishna and Nargis Fakhri on Deepavali poster; film opens 24 December

Balakrishna’s Dada has a name and a date for its first song. Dada Dhamaka will be out on Friday, 13 November, the film’s official X handle announced on the morning of Sunday, 8 November, in a Deepavali greeting that also restated the 24 December theatrical release.

The festival poster that came with the post puts Balakrishna beside Nargis Fakhri. He wears dark glasses and a studded leather jacket and holds a pistol up in one hand; she is in a sequinned gold outfit with an arm raised, and the two stand back to back in a dance pose in a crowded, chandelier-lit hall. S Thaman has composed the song. The post also tagged Fakhri, director Gopichand Malineni, the production house Vriddhi Cinemas and Zee Studios South.

The date fits the timeline Malineni set two days earlier. In a birthday message for choreographer Sekhar Master on Friday, 6 November, he told Sekhar Master he could not wait for people to see his work on the first song, said it would be out by the following weekend and promised fans a visual treat.

The second Balakrishna-Malineni film

Dada is the pair’s second film together after Veera Simha Reddy, their Sankranti release of 12 January 2023. Thaman scored that film as well, and its first single, Jai Balayya, came out in late November 2022, about seven weeks before the film reached theatres. Dada Dhamaka arrives 41 days ahead of Dada.

Fakhri works mainly in Hindi cinema. She made her debut opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Rockstar (2011), danced to Dhating Naach with Shahid Kapoor in Phata Poster Nikhla Hero (2013) and to Desi Girl in the Tamil film Saagasam (2016), and acted in Housefull 5 in 2025.

A Christmas Eve opening

Dada began life under the working title NBK111. It is a gangster action drama, and its title glimpse in September set Balakrishna’s character in Mumbai. Kajal Aggarwal plays the female lead, with Samuthirakani and Manchu Manoj in the cast. Sai Madhav Burra has written the dialogues, Arvind S Kashyap is behind the camera and Navin Nooli is editing; Burra and Nooli also worked on Veera Simha Reddy. Venkata Satish Kilaru produces it under Vriddhi Cinemas.

The film opens on Thursday, 24 December, the date Annapurna Studios fixed in August for Nagarjuna’s 100th film, King100. Before that, Dada Dhamaka goes out on Friday, 13 November.