BBK9’s Roopesh Shetty: My next, after Circus, is a Kannada film; direction on cards, but not now

When actor-filmmaker Roopesh Shetty headed into the Bigg Boss Kannada house, first for the OTT season and then the longer TV season, his intention was to make himself a household name across Karnataka. Roopesh was already a star in the coastal belt, on account of his film Girgit being a big hit in the area. After winning both legs of Bigg Boss Kannada last year, Roopesh had said that his hope was to do good Kannada films.

In June, he released a Tulu film that he’d directed and acted in before heading into the Bigg Boss house. Called Circus, the comedy drama took a fantastic opening in the coastal belt, following which Roopesh brought the film to Bengaluru too in its Tulu version. Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the film’s Bengaluru premiere, Roopesh was asked why the film wasn’t released in Kannada and whether he would make a direct Kannada film, among others.

“I am completely overwhelmed by the level of success Circus has found. This is a simple story, with nothing extraordinary about it, and yet, the people have accepted it and today, the film is in over 100 theatres, which is a major achievement for a Tulu film, where you’d expect a 20-hall release, at the most,” said Roopesh speaking to Kannada digital portal.

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As for releasing Circus in Kannada, Roopesh added that he had not made such plans while writing the film and did not include sequences that will appeal to non-Tulu speakers. In hindsight, Roopesh says that he should have, perhaps looked at having a Kannada version too. But at the time, since the market for Tulu film is limited and that he had spent Rs 1.5 crore, which is a big budget, he was not sure about investing on dubbing it in other languages. The mindset was to make a success of it in the Tulu version and get the money back. Also, he was not sure about how far a dubbed version would reach audiences. Given the film’s box office victory, though, Roopesh adds that he has not ruled out the possibility of a Kannada-dubbed version.

Will he look at making a direct Kannada film? That, says Roopesh, is definitely on the cards, although he has not begun work on it. “My next as an actor is a Kannada film. I have begun writing a script for a direct Kannada movie, but that will take some time, as I have just done a directorial and want a little bit of a breather before I take on filmmaking duties again,” he adds.