Raj B Shetty on Toby and SSE release gap: I will never be in competition with Rakshit Shetty

When Raj B Shetty announced the release date of his next film, Toby, as August 25, the assumption was that Rakshit Shetty’s Sapta Sagaradaache Ello (SSE) would not be vying for theatres around the same time. Before taking off the US in April, Rakshit had said that he was targeting an end of July (Muharram) release. At the time, it was not known that SSE would be a two-part film, but once that news came out, he had first said he would plan it three-weeks apart. Even then, SSE would have it’s time in theatres before Toby.

But then, shortly after Raj announced August 25 for Toby, Rakshit said that SSE 1 would be in theatres only a week later, with the second to follow 50 days later. This, of course, got Kannada film aficionados wondering why Raj and Rakshit, who are good pals offscreen, are in competition onscreen. Naturally, this is a question Raj’s been fielding during the promotions of Toby. Speaking to a Kannada portal, Raj said there was no question of ever being in competition with Rakshit. “I hope such a day never comes; if it does, I don’t think I want to work. I cannot compete with such a good friend. Today, wherever I am, I will support and promote his film, Sapta Sagaradaache Ello. I like Hemanth Rao as a filmmaker and Rakshit as a producer. My hope is that my film makes money and theirs does too,” he told Kannada Pichhar.

Raj adds that Rakshit was aware of his August 25 release plans for Toby and had other plans for SSE, which had to change owing to certain reasons. “Rakshit has not decided on September 1 for SSE to harm me or my film’s prospects. He would not have taken this decision without a proper reason. Also, both films belong to different genres and will find their own audiences. Imagine a situation in which both films work at the box office, then the question of audiences not coming to theatres does not come,” he added.