Exclusive! Rishi goes grey for his Tollywood debut with crime drama web series

Kannada actor Rishi, it would seem is expanding his footprint in the OTT scene. The actor, who has just had his first direct-to-OTT release with Nodi Swamy Ivanu Irode Heege on Zee5, will be seen in a web series next. The show, incidentally, will mark Rishi’s Telugu debut. “It’s a crime drama written and directed by Maahi Raghav, that will come to Disney+Hostar, in which I play the lead. Although it has been made as Telugu show, it will have a pan-India presence, in the sense that the makers have ensured that there are actors from most other industries on the cast. For instance, there are multiple well-known Telugu actors, three from Malayalam, and a few from Tamil. There’s Ravi Kale, Jaffer Sadiq, Lena, Manikandan, etc. The show was shot in Madanapalle and Shivamogga,” says a source associated with the show. Since it is a crime drama, is Rishi playing a cop? “No, no no… it’s the opposite. He plays the criminal. That is why Rishi was excited about the show. In fact, he even learnt Telugu to dub for his role,” he adds.

When we checked with Rishi about the development, he confirmed that he's doing a web show, but added that he is contractually bound to not speak about it just yet. 

Rishi’s also done his first short film in Kannada, called Surya, directed by debutante Kshitija Jayanth, which, has been shortlisted at the Bengaluru international Short Film Festival that will be held from August 4 to 14. Surya is a finalist in the Womens’ Cinema Collective Competition Section. “Kshitija had sent me the script and I thought it was quite promising. I had never thought of venturing into the short film space, but when I got the script, I was like, ‘Why not?’ It’s just a medium; my art and skill is still going to be the same. I was pretty kicked about it,” he says.

Back home in Kannada, Rishi’s next is the comedy Ramana Avatara, written and directed by Vikas and Vinay Pampapathi, which also stars Pranitha Subhash, Danish Sait, Raj B. Shetty, and Shubra Aiyappa.