Is Jaggesh’s Raghavendra Stores forfeiting a theatrical release and heading straight to OTT?

After the August 5 release date was pushed ahead with no further update, and some palpable tension between the actor and Hombale Films, the buzz is that Santhosh Ananddram’s film may even be shelved

Jaggesh in a still from the film

Kannada cinema’s Navarasa Nayaka Jaggesh was to have had a release earlier this year. His film, Raghavendra Stores, directed by Santhosh Ananddram and produced by Hombale Films had been announced as an August 5 theatrical release. A teaser was revealed on the eve of the release of KGF-Chapter 2 way back in April and since then, there’s been radio silence about the film. In fact, even when the film was pushed ahead from its August 5 date with audiences, no explanation or alternate date was offered. It’s been two months since, and all questions to the makers regarding the status of Raghavendra Stores have remained unanswered on social media.

Last week, though, there was a buzz that the banner may drop Raghavendra Stores from its roster of upcoming films, after Jaggesh reportedly made some remarks about how a big company is paying to create a false narrative of unprecedented success for some of its projects. His ‘veiled’ comment was believed to be about Hombale Films, since the banner’s most-recent release, Kantara, had released along with Jaggesh’s Thothapuri Part 1, and taken the box office by storm. In contrast, Thothapuri, directed by Vijayaprasad has been flailing, much to Jaggesh’s chagrin.

Jaggesh’s comments came during a post-release press meet of Thothapuri, following which the posts about the possible fate of Raghavendra Stores began popping up on social media. Several industry trackers have pointedly asked the makers for an update and got no response, prompting them to believe that the film will either not see the light of day or get a direct-to-OTT release. Industry insiders are inclined to favour with the latter, given that Raghavendra Stores is a finished project, thereby ruling out the possibility of it being shelved. Given that Hombale Films and its subsidiary KRG Studios has been selling their films to Amazon Prime Videos, the best bet, right now, is that Jaggesh’s film will head directly to the streamer at some point.

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