Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu has made an undisclosed investment in Shortgun Games, a Mumbai-based studio that builds games for PC and consoles, joining the startup as a strategic investor.
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Babu has taken a minority stake and will work with the studio to develop original, franchise-focused gaming intellectual properties (IPs), starting with its flagship title, Project Takedown.
“Interactive entertainment is the ultimate frontier where narrative depth, cutting-edge technology, and global culture intersect,” Babu said in a statement. “India has extraordinary creative potential, and the time is right to build original characters and cinematic worlds from here that resonate across the globe.”
He said what drew him to the startup was “Jeet Chandan and Vidhit Mehta’s clarity of ambition and their drive to create high-end PC and console experiences that stand shoulder-to-shoulder with international studio benchmarks.”
Beyond acting, Babu runs film production banners and owns the AMB Cinemas multiplex brand. In September 2024, he made a strategic investment through his production house GMB Entertainment in Fitday, a Hyderabad-based nutraceutical startup that sells plant protein, gummies, chips and bars. The Shortgun deal marks his entry into gaming as an investor.
Founded by Jeet Chandan, its managing director, and Vidhit Mehta, Shortgun Games began with a focus on Web3 and mobile gaming before moving into PC and console game development in 2024.
The studio aims to develop original gaming IPs for audiences in India and international markets. Its team includes former developers of the game Rogue Heist.
The startup raised $1 million in seed funding from angel investors in August 2025. It said at the time that the funding would go towards pre-production, building a minimum viable product of the game and hiring, with the team working mainly out of India.
What is Project Takedown?
Project Takedown is a high-budget, narrative-driven action-adventure game set in Mumbai. It is being built for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and is aimed at players in North America, Europe, the United Kingdom and other global markets.
The single-player action game is currently in development, with its release reportedly planned for late 2028.
Indian action director Vicky Arora, whose credits include the films Uri: The Surgical Strike and RRR and the web series Tanaav, joined the project last year to lead its action design. His team handles motion-capture choreography, combat visualisation and stunt mechanics, with live stunt performances fed directly into the game’s digital character pipeline, according to the startup.
When the studio raised its seed round in 2025, its flagship project was a third-person shooter for PC and console. Project Takedown is now being developed as a single-player, story-driven third-person shooter.
Apart from Project Takedown, Shortgun Games is working on a cooperative indie adventure game called Roll ’em Out.
“We founded Shortgun Games with a singular focus – to prove that India can engineer world-class interactive entertainment for PC and modern consoles. His (Mahesh Babu’s) intuitive understanding of large-scale storytelling, emotional connection, and mass resonance elevates our entire vision as we bring Project Takedown to life,” Mehta said.
Chandan added, “Our goal has always been to build durable, cross-media franchises that transcend regional boundaries. His strategic involvement empowers us to scale our technical capabilities, expand our creative talent, and execute at uncompromising quality standards.”
A mobile-first market
Shortgun’s focus on premium PC and console games sets it apart from India’s gaming market, where mobile games continue to dominate.
India’s video games market, excluding real-money gaming, grew 17% to $1.5 billion in calendar year 2025, according to the Lumikai State of India Interactive Media Report 2025.
The report put India’s gamer base at 555 million, down 9% from 609 million a year earlier, and found that all ten of the country’s highest-grossing games were international franchises such as Garena Free Fire, BGMI and Candy Crush Saga.
Lumikai expects the market to reach $3.2 billion by 2030, growing at about 17% a year.
