Raghavendra Stores will be a 2023 release, says director Santhosh Ananddram

At a time when Hombale Films was fast becoming known for its big-budget, A-list star led films, there came two announcements from the production house. One was for the Rishab Shetty-directed Kantara, while the other was for yet another Santhosh Ananddram directorial, after Raajakumara and Yuvarathnaa with Puneeth Rajkumar.

This time around, Santhosh was doing a relatively smaller film with Navarasa Nayaka Jaggesh in the lead, called Raghavendra Stores. A teaser of this film, as well as that of Kantara, was released on the eve of KGF: Chapter 2’s theatrical outing on April 14. Santhosh’s film, about a 40-year-old unmarried cook was to then be Hombale Films’ next release and a date, August 5, was fixed. However, in the days thereafter, there was no word from the makers about the status of the film and then it was pushed ahead with no alternate date in sight.

The production house then threw all its might into the release of Rishab’s Kantara, which, incidentally, was heading into a box office clash with Jaggesh’s Thotapuri Chapter 1 on September 30. Kantara, of course, literally took the box office by storm, following which Jaggesh made a few veiled statements, presumably against Hombale Films, when he said that a big company was paying to create a false narrative of unprecedented success for some of its projects.

Soon enough, there was a buzz that the production house had dropped Raghavendra Stores from its roster of upcoming theatrical releases, but given its long-standing association with Santhosh, who is set to direct Yuva Rajkumar’s debut for the banner, the Jaggesh-starrer would be pushed for a direct-to-OTT release. At the time, OTTplay had reported this development and posted the same on Twitter, which Jaggesh liked, which was seen as indication that Raghavendra Stores would be headed to OTT.

It's been to months since and no new update, what with the production house busy with its big success Kantara and a new project, Dhoomam. However, this week, a netizen posed a question to Santhosh on Twitter about the status of Raghavendra Stores, asking if it had been shelved, and he asserted that it would release in 2023. He wrote, “Raghavendra Stores will be a next year release. It’s a naughty entertainer, which is getting ready to entertain you with some values.” Santhosh’s tweet, however, does not clarify whether it will be a theatrical or OTT release.