For those of you who do not know, Vijaya Prasad is an Indian director and writer, known for his brilliant cult films ‘Sidlingu’ and ‘Neer Dose’. Both Kannada films were independent movies that managed to get good critical and commercial reception (relative to the films’ budget). Now, Vijaya Prasad is planning to release two films soon (a surprise in itself, which will be explained later), but he is against releasing said movies, directly on an OTT platform. Despite the worsening Covid-19 situation within the country, Vijaya Prasad is more than willing to wait out the current state of affairs till the film theatres in Karnataka open up with maximum occupancy. If nothing else, that should endear him to the film theatres and distributors association.
One thing, the Kannada writer-director is well-known for, is the time it takes for him to make his movies. ‘Sidlingu’, his first film released back in 2012, while ‘Neer Dose’, his second cult classic made it to theatres in 2016. His next main venture, ‘Petromax’ was supposed to be released last year in 2020, but the pandemic made that an impossibility, despite finishing ‘Petromax’s’ film production in 37 days, with Covid-19 restrictions. But now, the director is planning on releasing three movies in 2021 (which could get pushed to 2022, looking at the way the pandemic is currently going) – which is more than the number of films he has made and released so far (2).
‘Parimala Lodge’, ‘Petromax’ and ‘Totapuri: Part 1’ are the films which Vijaya Prasad is planning on releasing this year. However, out of these three films, ‘Totapuri: Part 1’ – Vijaya Prasad’s first two-part film’ is ready to be released. Similar to his upcoming film ‘Petromax’ and his older cult films – the aforementioned ‘Sidlingu’ and ‘Neer Dose’, the film will follow a complex loner protagonist who will have character growth after a ridiculous “journey”. The principal cast features Aditi Prabhudeva, Dhananjaya, and Suman Ranganathan. This venture would make it Suman Ranganathan‘s third collaboration with Vijaya Prasad, and it looks like she will be taking on a completely different role in ‘Totapuri’, when compared to her previous two roles.
The writer-director made his intent on releasing ‘Totapuri: Part 1’ over his other 2 upcoming films, but the release date will depend on the current Covid-19 situation. As mentioned earlier, Vijaya Prasad is patiently waiting for good news so he can finally release the movie in theatres at 100% occupancy. And we hope that it happens soon.
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