Exclusive! Suraj Gowda's directorial debut, Ninna Sanihake, to release on October 8

The film also marks the debut of Dhanya Ramkumar, the granddaughter of late Kannada matinee idol Rajkumar.

Suraj Gowda and Dhanya Ramkumar in a still from Ninna Sanihake

When Suraj Gowda was ready with his debut directorial Ninna Sanihake the nation was just beginning to hear of the Coronavirus. Soon enough, the pandemic struck here too and Suraj had to hold on to his plans as theatres shut down. Unperturbed by the delay, Suraj chose to wait patiently and made a second attempt to release the film earlier this year when theatres reopened at full capacity briefly. Unfortunately, that was not to be as the second wave of the pandemic struck.

In the time since theatres reopened, Suraj resisted releasing his film with limited capacity, determined to wait it out. “Every other business is being allowed to operate normally. Only theatres were not; I don’t understand this,” he had said back then. With the Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai now announcing that theatres can function at 100% capacity starting October 1, Suraj has already jumped into the thick of things and tells us that he will release the film on the following Friday, October 8. “We will be the first one to go out on October 8,” he says excitedly, adding, “With only 50% occupancy and night curfew in key districts for long, it was the right decision to hold on to the film. I was looking at the first available date once 100% occupancy is announced and this seems right. We will probably release a full video song to announce the release date officially and begin promotions again.”

The film, adds Suraj, is a love story revolving around the concept of a live-in relationship, which he believes is for family viewing. He is paired with Dhanya Ramkumar, the daughter of veteran actor Ramkumar and granddaughter of late Kannada matinee idol Rajkumar. Ninna Sanihake has music by Raghu Dixit, the songs of which have been chartbusters for a while.

But with quite a few films lined up for release in the coming weeks, it is still not clear how many of them will be in direct competiton with Suraj’s debut. “The only thing we can do then is believe in our product and hope that people find our film more entertaining and watch it,” he says.

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