Will Raj B Shetty spring a surprise and make Toby a pan-India film after all?

On June 13, Kannada filmmaker Raj B Shetty announced his next as an actor, Toby, a film that he has written and produced, but not directed. This time around, he handed over that responsibility to his associate, Basil AL Chalakkal. The film, in which Raj plays the title role, will be in theatres on August 25, he had also stated. So far, there is very little that Raj or his team has divulged about the film; it’s the beast that brought the best out of them - a revenge drama - is what they’ve said, adding that Chaithra Achar, Samyukta Hornad and Gopalkrishna Deshpande will also be seen in it.

In the past, Raj has often spoken about his reluctance to do ‘big’ films for ‘larger’ audiences, which is why he’s been making rooted films on subjects close to his heart, on smaller budgets. With Toby, though, we hear that Raj has set a new track record. It is a big budget film that he’s made on a larger scale than what he’s used to. This, of course, has given rise to speculation that the actor-filmmaker may not restrict the film to a Kannada release only, unlike his earlier Ondu Motteya Kathe and Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana (GGVV). In fact, for GGVV, Raj had famously refused to dub it in the other languages even for the OTT release, keeping his film in its Kannada original format only on the platform.

The buzz in industry circles is that Raj is set to make Toby a pan-India film after all, with a five-language release. An announcement to this effect is expected to be made shortly. Raj, we hear, came around to the idea of a pan-India release because the subject of Toby is more universal – an unusual love story that becomes a violent revenge drama.