Priyanka Jawalkar

Taxiwaala (transl. Taxi driver) is a 2018 Indian Telugu-language supernatural comedy thriller film written and directed by Rahul Sankrityan, and jointly produced by UV Creations and Geetha Arts. The film stars Vijay Deverakonda, Priyanka Jawalkar and Malavika Nair in the lead roles, with with Madhunandan, Ravi Varma, and Shiju in supporting roles. The music is composed by Jakes Bejoy. The movie released on 17 November 2018 to positve reviews and became a box office success. The film is slated to be remade in Hindi as Khaali Peeli with Ishaan Khattar.

The movie starts off with an odd scene in a hospital and then cuts to a year later.

Shiva (Vijay Devarakonda) comes to Hyderabad to live with his friend (Madhunandan) and find a job. His friend suggests him a couple of jobs and Shiva tries all of them. But he is not satisfied and decides to become a taxi driver. He goes to his village to get money from his brother (Ravi Prakash) but instead gets it from his sister-in-law (Kalyani) who readily gives away her Mangalsutra to him. Shiva and his friends search for a car in their budget but fail. One morning, Shiva gets a call from an unknown person who tells him that he has a car which is ready to be sold. Shiva meets the car's owner and takes the car happily, while his friend is a little hesitant.

Shiva starts to work for the Ola Cab Service. On his first ride, he falls in love with a girl named Anusha (Priyanka Jawalkar). Then, he starts to experience spooky things in the car. He tries to contact the car's previous owner but is unable to do so. A fake fakir comes and fools them by taking the car away. The fakir is almost killed while he is inside the car. Next morning, Shiva and his friends see the car in their garage. Shiva has to arrange money for his sister-in-law's delivery, so he starts to drive the car again. He is saved from an accident by the car itself. Once, after dropping Anusha at her residence, Shiva is pleaded by a doctor (Uttej) to drop him somewhere. But, the doctor is killed when is hit in the car and is ran on by a train after being thrown out of the car.

Shiva decides to go to the car's previous owner's house and steal something so that he can demand money from him. He and his friends go there and find a person in the store room of the house. They admit him in a hospital. The person wakes up and tells that he knows why the car behaves oddly. He tells that he was a professor of psychology and parapsychology. Once, he teaches a subject called Astral projection through which one can separate his/her soul from the body before death. A student named Sisira Bharadwaj (Malavika Nair) asks him to perform it on her. He asks her the reason behind her intention. In a flashback, Sisira tells her story- She lives with her mother (Yamuna) and her step-father, Raghuram. Her mother dies and she is greatly disturbed by this. She tells him that she wants to know who killed her mother. The professor performs Astral Projection on her and in the process, she starts to go deep into the Astral world.

Raghuram arrives and takes the professor and Sisira in a car, along with his friend, who is a doctor. But both of them hit the professor and Sisira's soul is separated from her body. Sisira's body is taken away by a clinic as she donates her body. On knowing this, Shiva apologizes to her spirit. The professor tells them that Sisira can be brought back to life if they get her body. Shiva and his friends go to the clinic and get the body, with the help of the security guard turned fakir who had tried to steal their car earlier. Raghuram wishes to see Sisira's body and comes to the clinic. He is almost killed by her spirit, but saves himself. Shiva beats him and takes him and Sisira's body to the professor's lab. Raghuram wakes up and tries to take Sisira's body away but the vehicle gets burned by Sisira's soul. Shiva gets extremely saddened.

He gets a call from Anusha who tells him that his sister-in-law gave birth to a baby girl. He goes to the hospital only to realize the baby had died due to chromosome abnormality. All of them go to the garage and console each other. While the baby's body is in the car, Sisira's soul enters the body and the baby starts crying. Shiva, his brother, his sister-in-law, his friends, the professor and Anusha come together and cuddle the baby.

• Vijay Devarakonda as Shiva
• Priyanka Jawalkar as Anusha/Anu
• Malavika Nair as Sisira Bharadwaj
• Madhunandan as Babai/Shiva's friend
• Vishnu as Hollywood
• Ravi Varma as Sisira's Professor
• Shiju as Raghuram (Sisira's step-father)
• Ravi Prakash as Shiva's brother
• Kalyani as Shiva's sister-in-law
• Yamuna as Sisira's mother
• Uttej as Doctor
• Kireeti Damaraju as a Doctor
• Chammak Chandra as Fake Fakir / Hospital security guard
• Chitram Seenu
• Satya Krishnan as Doctor

The song "Maate Vinadhuga" was the first to be released.

All tracks are written by Krishna Kanth.

Critical reception

Review scores
Source	Rating
IndiaGlitz

123telugu.com in its review noted that "The audio of Taxiwala is not the regular song and dance album which will impress the moment you hear it. This is a situational album which will grow on you once you watch the thriller and connect with the story", and said it was "Youthful and Contemporary". telugu360 Said "Taxi Waala is an outright classy album and Jakes Bejoy strikes a very emotional chord as well." IndiaGlitz in its review noted "Taxiwala is a winsome album boasting of two melodious songs and two cinematic numbers. If the singers and the lyricist give their vocal/poetic best, the music director blends the known and the new well."

The movie was initially set to release in may but it was postponed. In June, months before release of the movie, an uncut version of the movie was put up on the internet. On 7 November 2018, 10 days prior to the release of the film, a 45-minute clip of the film was leaked by the piracy website Tamil Rockers. The full movie was leaked a week later. Police immediately swung into action and the culprits were arrested; this included 17 students.