Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye 2023: Release date, trailer, plot, cast, and more

After the success of his second directorial Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana, a gangster flick that was mounted on a bigger scale and had finer making than his debut Ondu Motteya Kathe, Raj B Shetty was in no hurry to begin work on another directorial. He was clear, though, that when he returned to the director’s chair, it would be with a film that would be vastly different from Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana. The film that he eventually took up was a much ‘smaller’ project, albeit one with a beautiful tale.

Called Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye, this is a story that Raj wrote to be produced by actress Ramya as her debut home production under her banner AppleBox Studios. In fact, initially, the duo had planned it as her comeback vehicle too, but she eventually decided against it.

Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye will make you fall in love with love: Ramya 

Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye in theatres: Release date

Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye was announced in October last year, shortly after which Raj went on floors with it and finished it in 18 days flat. Immediately after, though, he threw himself headlong into the making of his next, Toby, which he wrote and acted in, but did not direct. Raj emerged in public only after he was done with Toby and began its promotions, at which point he was asked about the status of Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye. At the time, Raj had said that it was a film meant for OTT and that he’d handed over the finished product to the banner.

However, shortly after, speaking at a media conclave, Ramya highlighted the fact that mainstream streamers were either not buying Kannada content at all, or insisting on a theatrical release before offering some kind of a deal. This was seen as a sign that she’d been unable to sell the film to an OTT platform. For several months, there was no news about the film and then it was announced that Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye would make it to theatres after all. It is releasing in theatres on November 24 and has films like Abishek Ambareesh’s Bad Manners and Darling Krishna’s Sugar Factory, among others. 

Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye should be an OTT release; decision is up to the producer: Raj B Shetty 

Trailer, censor certification and run-time

While the team had earlier put out a few behind-the-scenes videos from the making of the film, the first proper glimpse into Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye that audiences got was when the trailer came out a few days ago. The trailer dispelled the theory that the film would be just a love story and revealed that there’s far more to it. The film was subsequently censored and given a clean U certification. As per the censor certificate, the film is all of 1 hour and 41 minutes long.

Plot of Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye

According to Raj, Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye revolves around Prerana, played by Siri Ravikumar, a counsellor at a palliative care centre, whose day-to-day duty includes helping the terminally-ill at the hospice to come to terms with their prognosis and prepare for the end. It’s a tough job, which takes its toll on her. But then she meets Aniketh (Raj), an end-stage gastro-intestinal cancer patient, who has come to live out his last few days at the centre and opts to not have sessions with her. From convincing Aniketh to speak to her, to then developing a bond that will change Prerana irrevocably - Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye is her transformative journey.

Siri Ravikumar on Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye: I had no idea about counselling in a hospice until I played Prerana 

The team of Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye

The technical crew of the film includes Raj’s regular collaborators – cinematographer Pravin Shriyan and music director Midhun Mukundan – as well as team members like Toby director Basil Alchalakkal, among others. Apart from Raj and Siri, the film also stars Gopalkrishna Deshpande, who is on his third film with the actor-filmmaker, Sandhya Arekere, who was in Toby too, Sapta Sagaradaache Ello fame JP Thuminad and Balaji Manohar, among others.

Rumours of a rift

During the promotions of Toby, Raj was often heard saying that the fury stemming from a recent experience gave him the impetus to write and make the film in record time. Toby was a film that went from writing to making and screens in only a few months. At the time, netizens speculated that he’d had a falling out with Ramya, which was further fuelled by his repeated reference of her as the producer whenever he had to speak about Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye.

Then, when the team at Ramya’s AppleBox Studios released BTS videos of the film around the same time as Toby’s promotions, none of which came from Raj or his team, it was all but confirmed that there was a rift indeed. And then, of course, Ramya did not attend the film’s trailer launch and has limited her involvement in the film’s current promotional spree to social media, which netizens are seeing as further hints to back their theory.