Kotigobba 3: All you need to know about this Sudeep and Madonna Sebastian starrer

In the 20th year of the original Kotigobba, the Vishnuvardhan film inspired from the Tamil flick Baasha, comes Kotigobba 3, Kichcha Sudeep’s second film in the series, after the 2016 Kotigobba 2. Barring the title, Sudeep’s versions have nothing else in common with the Vishnuvardhan film. Directed by Shiva Karthik, the film is slated for an October 14, 2021 theatrical release.

What we know about Kotigobba 3 so far…

Precious little is in the public domain so far, but the film is based on a story written by lead actor Sudeep. The makers have, however, revealed that it is a sequel and will have Sudeep and Ravi Shankar reprising their roles as Satya/Shiva and ACP Kishore, respectively, from Kotigobba 2. Mollywood-import Madonna Sebastian teams up with Sudeep this time around, paving way for a new romantic interest for the actor’s character. Also on board are Shraddha Das, Aftaab Shivdasaani, Abhirami, Nawab Shah, Danish Akhtar Saifi and Sudanshu Pandey. According to the title, Kotigobba 3’s tagline is The Ghost and it is being speculated that Sudeep will play a third character, referred to as ‘ghost’ in this film.

Produced by Soorappa Babu, Kotigobba 3 is being released as a Kannada film only this time around. It has music by Arjun Janya, with three of the songs, Aakashane Adarisuva, Nee Kotiyalli Obbane and Pataki Poriyo, notching up multi-million views online. Pataki Poriyo, written by fiimmaker Anup Bhandari, is the special song featuring Ashika Ranganath with Sudeep.

The story so far…

Kotigobba 2 revolved around a thief, Shiva (played by Sudeep), who only targeted the filthy rich. Turns out, he has a lookalike, Sathya (also Sudeep), an honest real-estate agent who is in love with Shubha (Nithya Menen). When Sathya goes to the cops to complain about his ‘brother’ Shiva, corrupt cop ACP Kishore (Ravi Shankar) smells foul play and suspects that both Satya and Shiva are one and the same. The rest of the narrative follows Kishore’s attempts to prove his theory, while Satya, in turn, gets the former sent to prison. Kotigobba 2’s ensemble cast included Prakash Raj, Mukesh Tiwari, Nassar, Sharath Lohithashwa, Chikkanna, Devaraj, Achyuth Kumar, among others. The film, produced by Rockline Venkatesh (Kannada) and MB Babu (Tamil) and directed by KS Ravikumar had music by D Imman. It was simultaneously released in Tamil as well as Mundinja Ivana Pudi. It remains to be seen how and where the story of Kotigobba 3 will pick up from.

The roadblock for Kotigobba 3

In October 2019, the team of Kotigobba 3 took of to Poland for a much-publicized 10-day schedule of the film. While the shoot went ahead without a hitch, trouble started upon the team’s return to India, when the Polish crew that assisted with the schedule claimed non-payment of dues. While producer Soorappa Babu initially dubbed it an extortion bid, in the time since, the team has had to delete all footage shot in Poland from any promotional material. In fact, as of July this year, there was still stay order on the publicity and release of Kotigobba 3. Earlier this month, Soorappa was quoted as saying that the dispute, which involved supposedly unpaid dues to the tune of Rs 88 lakh, had been resolved, without getting into specifics. So, it remains unclear if the team is being allowed to use the footage shot in Poland.

Release plan of Kotigobba 3

After several delays, some owing to the dispute with their Polish shoot partners, and others because of the pandemic, it was finally announced that Kotigobba 3 would hit theatres across Karnataka on October 14, 2021, ahead of the Dasara festivities. As of now, the film is in direct competition with another big Kannada film, Salaga, which is the directorial debut of Duniya Vijay. It is being speculated that Salaga may eventually be postponed to give Kotigobba 3 a clear window until Shivarajkumar's Bhajarangi 2 arrives on October 29, but there is no official word on that yet.