Shreyas K Manju’s Raana to get a November theatrical release just ahead of Deepavali

Just over three years ago, Kannada cinema got a new hero in the form of Shreyas K Manju, the son of veteran film producer, K Manju. Shreyas was the lead actor in director Guru Deshpande’s Paddehuli, in which he was paired with Nishvika Naidu. A film for which Shreyas says he gave his all, Paddehuli, though, did not set the box office on fire.

What he then did, though, was take up two vastly different projects, one a hardcore commercial flick directed by Pogaru maker Nandakishore and another, a more realistic love story helmed by Mollywood filmmaker VK Prakash. Although his film with VK Prakash, in which Shreyas is paired with wink queen Priya P Varrier, was his second venture and has been ready for a while, it looks like his third, Raana, will see the light of day earlier.

According to reports, the team of Raana has zeroed in on a release date for the film. November 11 is, apparently, the chosen date, which means that Raana will be in theatres a week after Zaid Khan’s debut Banaras and in direct competition with Darling Krishna’s next, Dilpasand. Raana pairs Shreyas with Ek Love Ya fame Reeshma Nanaiah.

In an earlier conversation with OTTplay about Raana, after the first teaser came out, Shreyas had said that the film is not all mass or class. “It strikes middle ground in its narrative style. Yes, there are commercial elements, like songs, dance and action, but I do not have bombastic punchlines. The action in this film will be a highlight; we’ve used references from the Hindi film War and the English movie John Wick and built on it. In fact, the second half completely runs on action. The stunts take the narrative forward, rather than the story,” he says,

Shreyas adds, “The first-look teaser has given people the impression that Raana will be a hardcore, loud masala entertainer. This impression is based on the teaser, and the truth is that the character is nothing like that. He is quiet and subtle, always minding his own business. Circumstances force him to defend himself and that is the bit we chose for the teaser.”