Ashika Ranganath’s medical thriller O2 gets a release date

Ashika Ranganath has not had a Kannada film release in a year and a half and was last seen in the musical romantic drama, Raymo. The actress, has, in the time since, made her debut in Tamil and Telugu cinema, but is returning to home ground with not one, but two releases in quick succession. First up, the actress will be seen in the much-delayed sequel of Avatara Purusha, which will be in theatres on April 5.

Only two weeks later, the actress will be seen in the lead of a medical thriller called O2, produced by the late Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar’s PRK Productions. The film is one of the last projects that Puneeth had greenlit before his untimely and tragic demise. O2, meanwhile, has chosen to hit theatres on April 19, which is the date of the first phase of Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka, including all of Bengaluru.

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Directed by debutants Raghav Nayak and Prashant Raj, O2, which also stars Praveen Tej, Siri Ravikumar, Prakash Belawadi, Gopalkrishna Deshpande, Puneeth BA, among others, revolves around the ethical dilemmas faced by a brilliant doctor in the pursuit of immortality.

Ashika Ranganath rues missed opportunity to work with Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar 

The film, which was launched in 2021 and wrapped up in September 2022, is the next presentation from PRK Productions, a banner that is dedicated to providing a platform to young talent. In earlier conversations with the media, Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar had reiterated her commitment to continuing the work Puneeth had started off. PRK Productions will continue to make relatively smaller films, within Rs 5 crore budget, with new talent, for which Ashwini is also keen to adapt Kannada novels.

Ashika’s other release next month, Avatara Purusha Trishankupayanam, sees her reprise her role as Siri, the niece of Rama Jois (Sai Kumar), who brings Anila (Sharan), a junior cine artiste, to pretend to be her uncle’s long-lost son. The second part will reveal Anila’s true intentions behind coming to the Jois family, the return of Jois’ son and the attempts by magicians – good and bad – to get hold of the Trishanku mani and, thereby, wield its immense power.