Dhruva Sarja’s Martin to be a March 2023 release?

Earlier this year, Dhruva Sarja’s fifth film, the AP Arjun directorial Martin, had been announced as a September 30 release. The makers had targeted Dasara 2022 and were set to have it clash with Kantara, Thothapuri and Ponniyin Selvan at the box office.

But then, delays in the shooting meant that team Martin could not meet this schedule, forcing them to push the film ahead. Martin is still not complete, with some 10-20% still pending. The team is expected to wind it up soon, as Dhruva is set to begin work on director Prem’s untitled period film. The title of Prem’s film will be announced at a major event to the attended by Sanjay Dutt and Mohanlal, among others, on October 20 in Bengaluru. Team Martin has been getting the post-production work, including dubbing, done in tandem with the pending shooting.

Meanwhile, the buzz is that Martin is likely to be a March 2023 release, given that Challenging Star Darshan’s Kranti is being promoted as the Sankranti release. As of now, Daali Dhananjaya has already booked the last weekend of March for his milestone 25th film, Hoysala, which was also meant to be 2022 release for Karnataka Rajyotsava.

Martin, produced by Uday K Mehta, is Arjun’s second directorial with Dhruva. The filmmaker had launched the actor with Addhuri a decade ago. The film, which has music by Mani Sharma and cinematography by Satya Hegde, pairs Dhruva with Gaalipata 2 fame Vaibhavi Shandilya. It also stars Nikitin Dheer, Sukrutha Wagle, Chikkanna and Anveshi Jain in pivotal roles.

Martin will be yet another multilingual film that will be released in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Hindi. It was earlier reported that the makers could target late December for the film’s release, but Shiva Rajkumar’s Vedha and Ganesh’s Baana Daariyalli have already booked the Christmas weekend.