Dhananjaya’s Kannada-Malayalam bilingual, Twenty One Hours, to hit theatres on May 20

Natarakshasa Daali Dhananjaya will debut in Malayalam cinema this month. The actor’s Kannada-Malayalam bilingual, Twenty One Hours, will release in theatres on May 20. Although the film was made for a theatrical experience, at one point, when theatres were operational only at 50% capacity, the makers had considered giving it a straight-to-OTT release.

Subsequently, though, they decided against it and now that most of the big-ticket releases have come and gone, are ready to hit theatres. Speaking at the trailer launch of the film earlier this week, Dhananjaya had said that when he was first approached to be a part of the Jaishankar Pandit directorial, although he was intrigued by the subject, he wondered how the execution would be and didn’t revert to the team immediately. Once he realized the strength of the technical team, Dhananjaya was convinced further. But the clincher, eventually, was that he felt that he needed to be a part of an experimental film like Twenty One Hours at that point in his career. “Once I began shooting for the film, whatever I thought would be tough to execute was handled brilliantly by director Jaishankar. This film promises a good investigative thriller. The story focuses on a Malayali girl who goes missing in Bengaluru. I play the undercover cop investigating this case. This is not a regular-format film and can be called an experiment. We had been on the lookout for a good window to release the film and felt that now’s the right time. KRG Studios will bring the film to theatres on May 20th,” said Dhananjaya at the event.

The actor, who recently also wound up work on his film Once Upon a Time in Jamaligudda, and his second home production Head Bush, has a slew of films ready for release. He’s now begun shooting for Hoysala, which is his milestone 25th film and pairs him with Badava Rascal co-star Amrutha Iyengar yet again.