Richard Anthony: Rakshit Shetty provides an update on the status of Ulidavaru Kandante spin off

Richard Anthony, based on Rakshit’s character from Ulidavaru Kandante, is a period film that will serve as a prequel and sequel to the events of the original film.

Still from Richard Anthony teaser

It’s been two years since Rakshit Shetty officially announced his intention to return to direction with Richard Anthony, a film based on his character from his directorial debut, Ulidavaru Kandante, to be produced by KGF and Salaar makers Hombale Films. In the time since, Rakshit has spoken about the film innumerable times, but that’s about all that’s happened so far. The actor-filmmaker is yet to go on floors with it and given that he has given himself a task of making as many as five of his own films in the foreseeable future, one cannot help but wonder how long that will take, given that he’s not got Richard Anthony on the road so far.

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In fact, earlier this year, when Rakshit was cornered by the media outside the polling booth where he’d gone to exercise his franchise in the state assembly elections, he was all set to take off to the US for a few weeks with the intention of isolating himself and concentrating on writing the final draft of Richard Anthony. Once he came back to India, the actor-filmmaker got busy with the release plans and promotions of Sapta Sagaradaache Ello Side A, which he has produced as well, which has been an ongoing process, given that the film has just got a Telugu release, with Malayalam happening a week later.

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By the time he gets done with that, Rakshit will have to begin promotions for Side B, which will release in its Kannada original version on October 20. Although he and director Hemanth M Rao are ensured of returning audiences eager to know what becomes of the protagonist, the hope will also be to have newer audiences, who would have caught the film in other languages or, perhaps, on OTT, to watch Side B. The Dasara week is a jam-packed time at the box office, what with films like Ghost, Leo, Bhagavanth Kesari, Tiger Nageshwara Rao and Ganpath already lined up for a slice of the market.

So, where does that leave Richard Anthony? Turns out, Rakshit has still not locked the final script and a final draft is still pending. The actor-filmmaker has said that he’s got all the plot points that he wants to incorporate in the final script firmly tucked away in his head, but he’s just not been able to put pen to paper, what with his busy schedule. He is hopeful of being able to take off for some quiet and solitude and finalize Richard Anthony as soon as he is done with Sapta Sagaradaache Ello.

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