VRL founder Vijay Sankeshwar’s biopic, Vijayanand, locks its release date

The film, directed by Rishika Sharma, will focus on the Hubballi-based business tycoon’s journey from owning one truck to making it one of India’s largest logistics firms.

Nihal and Anant Nag in a still from the film

Vijayanand is the biopic of businessman and Padma Shri awardee Vijay Sankeshwar, the Hubballi-based business tycoon who founded Vijayanand Roadlines (VRL), which is now one of India’s largest logistics firms. Vijay is also credited with running not one, but two leading Kannada dailies – Vijay Karnataka, which he later sold to the Times of India group and Vijayavani.

The biopic, produced by Vijay’s son Anand Sankeshwar as their VRL Film Productions’ maiden venture, and directed by Rishika Sharma, has Nihal Rajput playing the title character. Rishika and Nihal had earlier collaborated on the paranormal flick Trunk. The film has Anant Nag in the role of Vijay’s father BG Sankeshwar, Siri Prahlad as his wife, Lalitha and Bharath Bopanna as his son Anand. The film also stars V Ravichandran, Shine Shetty, Archana Kottige, Siri Prahlad and Vinaya Prasad in pivotal roles.

The film, which was primarily shot on location in Hubballi, where the company is headquartered, is now ready for release and the makers have zeroed in on a release date as well. Vijayanand will be in theatres on December 9. Speaking at the film’s audio launch last evening, Vijay said that the film’s narrative was 100% true to real incidents that happened in his life and that no cinematic liberties have been taken for visual appeal. The film, he said, will capture his life and beginnings of VRL Transport from just one truck to what it is today, as well as his initiation into media publishing. Speaking at the event, Vijay said that he was immensely impressed with Nihal’s dedication in trying to imbibe his mannerisms, body language, etc. in trying to make the biopic as authentic as possible. In fact, that was one of the mandates he had given Rishika – to not deviate from the truth.

To be released in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, Vijayanand is a Gopi Sundar musical.

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