Rakshit Shetty and Hemanth M Rao set a timeline for their period film,Tenali

It’s been a while since actor-filmmaker Rakshit Shetty announced his plans to return to the director’s chair with Richard Anthony, a film that will serve as prequel and sequel to the events surrounding his character Richie in Ulidavaru Kandanthe. Rakshit, though, was busy with some acting commitments – 777 Charlie and Sapta Sagaradaache Ello – and will now look at taking Richard Anthony on floors shortly. Thereafter, Rakshit has a line=up of films, all of which he will write, direct and act in, which he revealed a few months ago, when rumours of him doing a pivotal role in Thalapathy Vijay’s Leo came up.

Rakshit Shetty’s film line-up exciting, but needs to pick up the pace, say fans 

Rakshit had tweeted that he was looking at following up Richard Anthony with a two-part Punyakoti and Midway to Moksha for sure. For Kirik Party 2, he’d said, he had different plans, which, as he recently explained, would be to revive it with newcomers. His list of films had fans wondering about two other films that he’s been excited about. One was Thugs of Malgudi, in which Rakshit would direct Sudeep and another was Tenali, a period detective drama to be directed by Godhi banna Sadharana Mykattu and Sapta Sagaradaache Ello maker Hemanth M Rao. The duo had even done a look test, which looked interesting, with Rakshit in a bespoke three-piece suit and beret, giving off distinct Hercule Poirot vibes.

Did you know? Rakshit Shetty & Hemanth M. Rao were meant to work on a period detective mystery titled 'Tenali' 

Tenali was to be their collaboration after Hemanth finished Kavaludaari, but they did Sapta Sagaradaache Ello instead and now Rakshit is going to be busy with his directorial ventures at least for the next 6-7 years, given that he said he will need at least a year and half on Richard Anthony itself. Where does that leave Tenali? Both Hemanth and Rakshit are positive that it is still very much on the cards and last evening, during an Instagram live of team Sapta Sagaradaache Ello, a fan posted the question again, to which Rakshit said that Tenali could take off after he’s done with Punyakoti. Hemanth chimed in jokingly, that he’d be in a wheelchair by then, poking fun at Rakshit’s relatively slow pace of working, but the latter had the last word, saying that by the time the filmmaker got around to writing the script and prepping for Tenali, Rakshit would also be free, having finished his films.

Sapta Sagaradaache Ello's Rakshit Shetty: Hemanth M Rao and I gel well because cinema is our priority 

If Tenali is the movie that Rakshit and Hemanth work on after Punyakoti 1 and 2, that would mean that Midway to Moksha may not happen. The latter is a film that fans have been eager to see happen, as Rakshit has envisaged as a project with the three Shettys – Rakshit, Rishab and Raj – being a part of it. Recently, though. Rakshit had addressed this and said that Midway to Moksha was a smaller film and that he was not sure if Rishab would be a part of something like that after the success of Kantara. In fact, Rishab was meant to be a part of a Rakshit production, Bachelor Party, and had excused himself from it to focus on Kantara 2, instead.