45 release date: Arjun Janya’s Shivarajkumar, Upendra and Raj B Shetty-led film not in Independence Day race
45 release date: Composer Arjun Janya’s debut directorial 45 was the first to announce August 15 as the release date for his ambitious project, but he won’t meet that deadline
Last Updated: 07.03 PM, Jul 16, 2025
Kannada cinema’s magical composer Arjun Janya’s maiden directorial venture, 45, is one of the most anticipated films of the year. He’s got Shivarajkumar, Upendra and Raj B Shetty leading the cast and all that one heard of when the film was initially announced was just how prepared Arjun was before he went on floors. He’d convinced his producer, Ramesh Reddy, and the cast not with story narrations, but by showing them the film itself, having prepared an animated version of it beforehand. He had absolute clarity and, therefore, did not shoot anything that would not make it to the final edit.
45 set for September release
Yet despite Arjun’s best efforts, the film, which was announced as an Independence Day release, is going to miss that deadline. There’d been rumours of a possible postponement for a while, as the film has extensive visual effects work, and much of it is still in process. But there’s been no word from the makers yet. With less than a month to go for the original release date, since no promotions have begun for the film which is set to get a pan-India outing, it is a given that August 15, 2025 is out of the picture.
OTTplay reached out to producer Ramesh Reddy who confirmed that 45 will be delayed. “The delay is partially due to incomplete VFX work, which we are looking at having in place at the earliest. But there’s also the issue of too many big releases in the Independence Day week. We are looking at taking 45 across the country and the north-Indian belt is a major market, which will not be available if we release along with War 2. And in the south, there’s Rajiinikanth’s Coolie, which also stars Upendra, so we can’t clash with that either,” he said.
Ramesh is now looking for a suitable date in September for his film. Isn’t Dhruva Sarja’s KD expected then? “KVN Productions is distributing my film, so there’s no chance of a clash. Also, KD is more likely an October or November release. September 4 was a date they’d considered, but that may just come my way. We will finalize a new release date shortly and announce it too,” he says.