Choo Mantar: Sharan’s tale of exorcism sets festive release date

Choo Mantar: Sharan’s tale of exorcism will be in a direct box office tussle with biggies including Ram Charan's Game Changer

Sharan in Choo Mantar

In 2023, it was Daali Dhananjaya who said Sankrantige Ondu Kannada Cinema and presented Orchestra Mysuru in theatres. Cut to 2 years later, and it is actor Sharan who is preparing to give Kannada audiences something to look forward in the new year. Normally, Sankranti is a festival that is taken up by big-ticket releases from Tamil and Telugu cinema. Dhananjaya’s attempt did not work at the box office, with Orchestra Mysuru finding love after its OTT release.

Choo Mantar - Sankrantige Ondu Kannada Cinema

Sharan is bringing his much-delayed film Choo Mantar to theatres this Sankranti. The film, directed by Navneeth of Karvva fame, was meant to be an April 2024 release, then May, and was then postponed indefinitely, until this week, when the team said that there was no going back from their plan to release it on January 10, 2025.

In doing so, Choo Mantar will be in competition with films like Ram Charan’s Game Changer, Nandamuri Balakrishna’s Sarkaar Sitharam, Venkatesh’s Sankranthiki Vastunnam, Ajith’s Good Bad Ugly, among others. Game Changer is, undoubtedly, the bigger release of the festival and will hog screens/shows in Karnataka.

Exclusive! Sharan: Exorcism, as depicted in Choo Mantar, will be novel for Kannada audiences

Choo Mantar, meanwhile, has audiences intrigued because it has been written by Navneeth and while Sharan is known for blending different genres with his stronghold, comedy, this one will hinge more on the horror aspects of the supernatural than in bringing laughs to the audience. The film’s central plot revolves around the paranormal activities in the home of an NRI couple, with Sharan, Chikkanna and Aditi Prabhudeva as modern-day exorcists, called in to get to the bottom of the issue.

Sharan’s Choo Mantar censored; run-time of horror comedy revealed

A new teaser of Choo Mantar welcomes audiences to the world of Satan, with Prabhu Mundkur and Meghana Gaonkar as the couple in the haunted house. They seek help in Dynamo (Sharan), a priest specialising in exorcism. In an earlier interview with OTTplay, the actor had said that while exorcism has been depicted in Indian cinema, it has never really been from the perspective of the Catholic Church and that is what Choo Mantar will depict, which will be novel for audiences.

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