Toby: Did Raj B Shetty trick viewers into thinking they’d cracked the story with the trailer?

Raj B Shetty plays the lead in Basil AL Chalakkal’s directorial debut, Toby, which releases in theatres on August 25 as a Varmahalakshmi festival presentation

Raj B Shetty in a still from the film

If you thought that you’ve all but figured out what Raj B Shetty’s upcoming film Toby is about based on the trailer that the team released, well, the actor-filmmaker says that he’s got us fooled. In a recent promotional interview for the film, Raj said that what he’s done with the trailer is that he’s told a story, which is not the story of Toby ; it just gives the viewer an idea that he/she has cracked it. Raj said that the choice of visuals in the trailer was deliberate so as to allow people to form a story in their minds. The actual story, he adds, is nothing like what they’ve conjured up.

Read also: Raj B Shetty: Toby will be released as a Kannada film, but if it becomes a hit, we will take it everywhere

The story that's not the story

In the trailer of Toby which came out just over a week ago, Raj, as Toby is shown as a simpleton, who often gets taken advantage of by mightier people, including getting him to commit acts of violence. But then his life turns around when he meets Savitri (Samyukta Hornad) and gets married to her. However, circumstances force him into taking on a Maari avatar and becoming the destroyer of evil. That’s about the gist that one gets, besides the fact that there is a young girl in Toby’s life, who could be a daughter or a younger sibling, who grows up to be Chaithra J Achar’s character. There’s also Toby’s friend, played by Gopalkrishna Deshpande.

Raj says that what he’s done with the trailer is to tell his audience what the mood of the film is going to be like. “So, when they come to the theatre, there is still an element of surprise when they see how the story unfolds,” reasons the actor. Set to release in theatres on August 25, Toby is the directorial debut of Raj’s long-time associate Basil AL Chalakkal. The film is based on a story by TK Dayanand, which Raj took and rewrote, to give it more cinematic appeal.

Read also: Toby: The Raj B Shetty school of cinema helped me become a director, says Basil Chalakkal

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