Pruthvi Shamanur’s launchpad, Padavi Poorva, gets year-end release

Hariprasad Jayanna, a long-time associate of director Yogaraj Bhat, has been working on getting his own directorial debut for a while. Five years ago, he had announced his first film, Premadalli with Vihaan, Akshara Gowda and Ameeta Kullal, but for reasons best known to the team, the film did not take off. Then, in 2021, it was announced that Yogaraj Bhat would co-produce a film for Hariprasad, which would launch a new hero in Kannada cinema, Pruthvi Shamanur.

The film, Padavi Poorva, is a college caper set in the 90s, and has Anjali Anish and Yasha Shivakumar in pivotal roles. Divya Uruduga, Aditi Prabhudeva, Varsha Acharya, Prabhu Mundkur, Sonal Monteiro, Raghu Gowda, Nayana, will also be seen in the film, which has now zeroed in on its release date. Padavi Poorva will join Once Upon a Time in Jamaligudda in closing out the year with a December 30 theatrical release.

Hariprasad has already announced his second directorial, for which he will reunite with Pruthvi yet again. Like Padavi Poorva, this one too will be co-produced by the actor’s father, Ravi Shamannur. Hariprasad is looking at retaining the young and new technical crew of Padavi Poorva for his next, while the cast will comprise newcomers, to be chosen through auditions. Pruthvi, meanwhile, will also be seen in Yogaraj’s film Garadi, in which he plays the younger version of Challenging Star Darshan, who will be seen in a pivotal role in the Yashas Surya starrer.

Padavi Poorva was recently in the news when a voice clip of Yogaraj taking the Head of Business of Zee Kannada, Raghavendra Hunsur, to task, for failing to strike a business deal with the filmmaker for some of his upcoming productions and directorials. One of the films that Yogaraj highlighted was Padavi Poorva. Zee Kannada was to buy the digital and satellite rights of the film, but then stopped negotiations, with Hunsur allegedly ducking calls from the filmmaker.