Rakshit Shetty in box-office clash with good pal Nivin Pauly in Kerala

Rakshit Shetty’s 777 Charlie is set to release in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi this Friday. And while the film has competition in all these markets from local and foreign films, in Kerala, most noticeably, Rakshit is pitted against his good friend Nivin Pauly. Nivin’s Thuramukham was meant to be a June 3 release, but was pushed ahead by a week, which has now resulted in this box-office clash.

Rakshit and Nivin have been friends since the former remade the latter’s Premam, although not official, as Kirik Party. Subsequently, Nivin acted in the Tamil remake of Rakshit’s directorial, Ulidavaru Kandanthe, which was called Richie. Then, in 2019, Nivin released Rakshit’s Avane Srimannarayana in Kerala. At the time, the Kannada actor-filmmaker had spoken at length about how Nivin had helped him with the release and distribution of the film. Considering the close bond the two actors share, it did seem strange that they would then clash at the box office, but industry insiders reckon that since both films belong to vastly diverse genres, they will each have their respective audiences.

777 Charlie has been produced by Rakshit under his banner, Paramvah Studios. The film is being presented by Mollywood star Prithviraj in Kerala and will be distributed by his Prithviraj Films. Directed by Kiranraj K, the film, which also stars Sangeetha Sringeri, Raj B Shety, Danish Sait, Gopalkrishna Deshpande and Bobby Simha, among others, is releasing in theatres on June 10.

Since last week, the team of the film has been conducting premiere shows across the country, to drum up word of mouth publicity, which they believe is the cornerstone for a movie like theirs which rides on emotion than regular commercial film gimmicks. A total of 21 premieres are being held, as well as a series of paid premieres in Karnataka on June 9.