Ganesh and Bhat were collaborating for the fourth time with this film, while it was the fifth film for Diganth with the director. Director Pawan Kumar of Lucia fame, who has worked with Bhat earlier as a screenwriter and an actor in Manasaare (2009) and Pancharangi (2010), also faced the camera.[3][4][5][6][7] It was released in theaters on 12 August 2022.[8][9] Subsequently, it was released for OTT on October 5, 2022, through ZEE5.[10]
Premise
Gani, 'Mugilpete' Diganth, and Bhushan are college friends, who return to Neer Kote, Malnad, to visit their ailing Kannada teacher Kishore Meshtru. Kishore seeks the trio's help to search for his long lost son Revanth aka Appu. How does the trio help Meshtru in finding Appu forms the crux of the plot.
The film was produced by Ramesh Reddy of Suraj Production. The cinematography was done by Santhosh Rai Pathaje, and the music was composed by Arjun Janya.[5] The team started shooting on 2 December 2019, and completed a major chunk of the shooting in and around Kudremukh over almost 30 days. Further production schedules were delayed due to COVID-19.[3] The filming was completed in October 2021.[11]
The film was theatrically released on 12 August 2022.[12]
Home media
The satellite and digital streaming rights of the film were acquired by Zee Kannada and ZEE5.[13]
Reception
Box-office
The film did a pre-release business of around ₹8 crores [14] by the sale of digital, satellite and audio rights.[15] The first day gross was reported to be between ₹15 crores [16][17] to ₹20 crores.[18] The movie collected around ₹10 crore on Day 2.[19] The movie collected ₹5 crore each on Day 3 & Day 4 - taking the total gross to ₹35 crore.[1] However, the trade estimated ₹25 crores to be the 5-day gross [20] with the final collections to be ₹33.20 crores at the end of 2 weeks.[21]