Toby vs Sapta Sagaradaache Ello: What’s different about Raj and Rakshit’s other language releases?

On September 22, two Kannada films will aim at wooing audiences across the border. First up, there’s Raj B Shetty’s Toby, which is releasing in a Malayalam version, while Rakshit Shetty is taking his Sapta Sagaradaache Ello as Sapta Sagaralu Dhaati to Telugu audiences. Both teams are currently in the midst of promoting their films for these respective audiences, with the teasers/trailers coming out around the same time. If you’ve followed both these films in their Kannada original versions, there are, interestingly, some glaring differences in the approach that one of these teams is following.

Read: Sapta Sagaradaache Ello Side A review: Hemanth M Rao's throbbing love story leaves you wanting more

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Toby movie review: Raj B Shetty presents a heart-achingly beautiful and tragic tale

Toby and Sapta Sagaradaache Ello had released in theatres one week apart on August 25 and September 1, respectively, with both teams refraining from doing pan-India releases. The films would travel organically, they’d said, assuring audiences that dubbed versions were ready to be ‘deployed’ as and when the need arose. Unfortunately for one of them, though, there was a stumble after a rousing start – Raj’s Toby, which he had projected as a mass commercial film that’d have far more whistle-worthy moments than his earlier Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana, had set up unrealistic expectations among audiences, which were dashed when the film finally released. Audiences, who were expecting an action-packed revenge saga, going by the first-look Maari avatar poster, were disappointed when the film turned out to be an emotional father-daughter saga.

Not all was lost, though, with several audiences lauding the making and the performances, in particular, but the word-of-mouth publicity that the film’s narrative was slow, among others, worked against its box office prospects. However, in its limited release in other states, there was a lot of positive feedback, especially from Kerala, following which, Raj decided to release the film in a Malayalam version. What was notable when the Malayalam trailer came out, though, was that this version had a different ending than the Kannada original. While Raj’s Maari avatar was the highlight of the Kannada version, that was missing in the Malayalam trailer. It appears that Raj and team have been paying attention to what was being said about the film on social media and other public channels and have made necessary changes. Whether or not the team has also worked on the edit to make the narrative more crisp, remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Rakshit’s Sapta Sagaradaache Ello, which had a limited yet focused publicity approach delivered on what it promised – an intense, yet tragic love story. The team was clear that the story and narrative would not be for everyone and there were audiences who found the film slow and lacklustre, but for the most part, SSE struck a chord with audiences everywhere the film released. So much so that now that the Telugu version is set to release on Friday, the team has been confident enough to not change anything but the audio. The teaser that came out a few days ago was the exact same one that director Hemanth M Rao had released in Kannada a year ago, while the trailer today was the same as the Kannada original.