Anup Bhandari is back with his next film Rajaratha. It seems like Anup is fascinated with the alphabet ‘R’ as the title of his previous venture was RangiTaranga , which not only bagged eight awards at IIFA but also found a spot in the list of over 300 films eligible to be nominated for the Academy Awards.
Rajaratha , translated to English means royal chariot. Nearly 20 months after RangiTaranga , Anup is back to entertain the Kannada audience. While RangiTaranga was made in Kannada alone, Rajaratha – a romantic comedy is a bilingual in Kannada and Telugu, produced by Jollyhits-Production House.
The film has triggered curiosity among people because of its star cast, music and making. Kannada cine goers seem to be fascinated with campus stories (The success of Kirik Party seems to vouch for this). The film stars Nirup Bhandari (Anup’s brother) and Avantika Shetty, who was also a part of RangiTaranga . Besides writing and directing the film, Anup has also composed the music for the film. Anup’s wife Neetha Shetty has designed the costumes. Tamil actor Arya will also make his debut in Kannada with Rajaratha and versatile actor Ravishankar will be seen in a totally new avatar.
The Telugu script is written by Abburi Ravi and lyrics are penned by Rama Jogayya Shastri. Original background score is by Ajaneesh Lokanath, editing by Shantha Kumar and cinematography by William David.
Arya’s first look as Vishwa in Rajaratha created quite a stir. His look in the film is said to be inspired by actor Sudeep. Anup reveals, “Sudeep had earlier worked with my father Sudhakar Bhandari’s Kannada teleserial Premada Kadambari in the 90s.” Ever since, the brothers would discuss story ideas with Sudeep in mind. Anup had even written a script during his engineering days which was initially titled Yodha in which he wanted to cast Sudeep in the role of a cop.
Arya, who watched RangiTaranga fell in love with Anup’s filmmaking style and “immediately agreed to be part of Rajaratha. Many don’t know that Arya hails from a town in Kasargod District. His connection with Tulu Nadu in a way might have prompted him to join Rajaratha team. It was great to work with Arya. He would always be on time on the sets and do anything that the role required without questioning,” states Anup.
The other surprise is Puneeth Rajkumar, who is also a part of the film in an interesting way. He is the voice of the royal chariot Rajaratha . Nirup too sports a totally new look for this film, which seems to be a blend of a beautiful story line with technical excellence.
Avantika, who dons the lead opposite Nirup, describes the film as one of the best. She also adds that expectations are high because of the success of RangiTaranga .
Songs seem to be the highlight of Rajaratha . Remember the iconic song ‘Mundhe Banni’ from the Kamal Hassan and Suhasini starrer Benkiyalli Aralida Hoovu ? The song is back in a new avatar in this film. Anup seems to be all set to showcase his singing skills with this cover version. The song is choreographed by none other than Jani Master, who has made all the top actors across the South dance to his tunes.
“Hele Meghave” in the voice of Abhay Jodhpurkar who had earlier sung “Ee Sanje” for Rangitaranga has been shot at beautiful locales of Mahabaleshwar. The song is a perfect blend of contemporary music and pure Kannada lyrics.
Rajaratha was supposed to release in February this year, but was delayed due to post production reasons. Now the film will hit the screen across Karnataka today. “ Rajaratha was completed as scheduled. As it is bilingual, getting the certificate from Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) was delayed. We planned to release it on February 23, but did not want to come in the way of the Bengaluru International Film Festival (Biffes). All the screens in Orion PVR cinemas were booked for Biffes. In the meantime, the South Indian film industry plunged into a crisis because of the differences with Digital Service Providers (DSPs) UFO and Qube. Finally, we planned to release the film on March 23,” says Anup.
Now that all eyes are on Rajaratha, one wonders if it will create history again and repeat the success of RangiTaranga.
