Aachar & Co 2023: Release date, trailer, plot, cast, budget, behind the scenes, OTT partner and more

Aachar & Co is PRK Productions’ first feature film theatrical release, since 2019’s Mayabazar 2016. The banner’s Law, French Biriyani, One Cut Two Cut, Family Pack and Man of the Match had all been direct-to-OTT outings during the pandemic.

Debut directorial

Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy was acting in the PRK Productions venture French Biriyani when she told Puneeth Rajkumar about a film she wanted to make and showed him a six-minute showreel, which he found impressive. He then got his wife Ashwini to read the screenplay and while she liked it, she admits to having been apprehensive initially about getting Sindhu only to direct it, given her young age and relative inexperience. Puneeth, though, convinced her and asked her to have confidence in Sindhu’s vision and that’s how the film came to be.

Exploring 1960s Bengaluru

Aachar & Co is about a family in 1960s Bengaluru, a time when industrialisation and nationalisation of banks happened and women began showing keen interest in education and employment. The film follows Madhusudan Aachar (Ashok), his wife, Savithri (Sudha Belawadi) and nine of their 10 children – three boys and six girls. The eldest, a daughter, was married off at a young age. Madhusudan, a civil engineer in government service, hopes that his sons will follow in his footsteps, but one becomes a surveyor, another a sales representative, while the third has an artistic bend. Barring Suma (Sindhu) the rest of the girls become graduates. When Madhusudan then dies on the job, and the eldest son flies the coop to settle in Delhi, never to return, it is up to the others to find their bearings

Cast and crew of Aachar & Co

The cast of Aachar & Co is led by Sindhu, who plays Suma, the matric fail daughter of Madhusudan Aachar, who dreams of getting married and settling down in London. Also on the cast are Vamsidhar Bhogaraju, Harshik Koushik, Anirudh Acharya, Sonu Venugopal, among others. The film’s 1960s costumes were designed by Inchara Suresh, while Bindhumalini scored the music

Budget

The exact budget of Aachar & Co is unknown, but producer Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar has said that it belongs to the up to Rs 5 crore category.

Release plans and streaming partner

Aachar & Co is releasing in theatres on July 28. The film had a star-studded premiere in Bengaluru on July 25. The post-theatrical streaming rights have been snapped up by Amazon Prime Video.