'Will be part of Pushpa 2 but...': Daali Dhananjaya on the future of Jolly Reddy

Dhananjaya began his 2023 on a rather creative note by turning a full-fledged lyricist for Sunil Mysooru's Orchestra, Mysuru! His collaboration with the young team and popular music composer Raghu Dixit yielded eight superb songs that range from mushy romance numbers to thumping rock songs. Fans of the Head Bush actor were pleasantly surprised by his prowess as a wordsmith and the fact that he withheld such talent for these many years. 

On the acting front, Dhananjaya is looking forward to another fruitful year as he forays into new territories as an artist. On the one hand, he has the very promising, out-and-out commercial film in the form of Hoysala, in which he stars as a daring and dashing police officer named Gurudev. Set in Belagavi of Karnataka, Hoysala has been directed by Vijay N and also stars Amrutha Iyengar, KGF 2 baddie 'Andrews' B.S. Avinash, Naveen Shankar, and others - the film is slated to release on March 30th, 2023.

Dhananjaya will also be venturing into other film industries in 2023 and will likely reprise his role as Jolly Reddy in the much-anticipated sequel project Pushpa: The Rule. While the arc and significance of his character in the storyline are still under wraps, Dhananjaya is expected to soon join Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, Fahadh Faasil and the rest of the cast to begin work.

At the recent Chikkaballapur Utsav, he was joined by his Pushpa co-star Anasuya Bharadwaj on the grand stage. "I didn't know Anasuya belonged to Karnataka," he said about co-star, visibly impressed with her short Kannada speech a few minutes before. "The two of us worked in Pushpa and are likely to work again for Pushpa 2 but we are waiting for Sukumar sir to narrate the story to us," added Dhananjaya.

Anasuya Bharadwaj played the role of Dakshayani in Pushpa: The Rule and her portrayal of the rustic character won her a lot of praise. Pushpa 2, or Pushpa: The Rule, is currently in the making and is expected to release sometime in 2023.

On the other hand, Dhananjaya will be joining forces with Telugu actor Satyadev Kancharana for a commercial entertainer (incidentally, the film happens to be the 26th project of both actors) helmed by Eashvar Karthic. The Hoysala actor will also be seen in the Tamil thriller Paayum Oli Nee Yennaku, co-starring Vikram Prabhu and Vani Bhojan.