Audiences were not impressed, considering that the launch event began with some ‘drama’ to cancel the event and then a teaser with only audio
The 'teaser' was launched on the occasion of the Real Star's birthday
Kannada cinema’s Real Star Upendra has not had a great run at the box office as an actor for a while, but his films as a director have always generated a lot of interest and UI is his next, which comes a good 8 years after his last. Since the start, Upendra has been tight-lipped about what his film is all about and has not revealed anything about the plot or much about the cast, for that instance. A poster that he’d revealed earlier on, though, had sparked massive intrigue, with eagle-eyed audiences finding clues to the possible story in it.
When news of a possible teaser came up for the actor-filmmaker’s birthday, fans were thrilled to finally get a glimpse of what is in store. In the run-up to the event, Upendra had said that his film and its visuals were meant for a big-screen experience and the launch was, therefore, planned at a popular single-screen in Bengaluru. The event, which had several stars in attendance, including Shivarajkumar, Duniya Vijay, and Vinay Rajkumar, among others, turned out to be a bit of a damp squib though. After getting Shivarajkumar to announce the teaser launch, the team created some fake drama by having a bunch of junior artistes pretend to be fans demanding that the teaser launch be cancelled. The rationale was that since only a selected few would get to see the teaser on the big screen, everyone else would still watch it on their mobile screens, something that the Real Star was trying to avoid.
Read: Watch: A wide-eyed Upendra begins editing his dream project UI
This went on for a bit and after they came to an agreement to go ahead anyway, what then played out shattered everyone’s hopes. The teaser had no video at all and featured Upendra’s voice speaking about the darkness he’s engulfed in and how to break out of it. The sound effects that follow point towards a fair bit of violence too, with a final line that tells us, “This is not an AI world, this is UI world… use your imagination to escape’. Following this teaser, Upendra clarified that almost 90% of the film involves graphics, which is being done at four different studios, and that until it all done to his satisfaction, he will not show any visuals of UI to anyone.
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