Get set for late Puneeth Rajkumar's James introduction, 'Trademark' song tomorrow

As the countdown to the much-awaited release of the late Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar’s last commercial film, James begins, here’s something for fans to look forward to. In a few hours, the team of the film will release a lyrical video of the actor’s introduction song. Called the Trademark song, this number, composed by MR Charan Raj, is expected to have glimpses of the late actor. The team will release the song at 11.11 am on March 1, on the auspicious occasion of Mahashivaratri.

James, which was Puneeth’s maiden collaboration with Bahaddur and Bharjari maker Chethan Kumar, reunited the Power Star with his Raajakumara co-star Priya Anand. The film, which will be his last full-fledged commercial release, is slated to release on his birthday, March 17, a week in which no other new Kannada film will come, as a mark of respect for the late actor.

The film, according to sources, is currently up for censor certification and is likely to be certified soon, clearing the decks for its timely release on March 17. James is an action-packed drama, in which Puneeth plays an agent with an elite security service agency. The actor had finished shooting for the talkie portions of the film and had only two songs pending at the time of his tragic passing owing to a heart attack on October 29, 2021.

Chethan had clarified back then that he had enough footage to put the film together in a coherent manner. What he didn’t have was Puneeth’s voice, as the actor had not dubbed for his portions prior to his passing. While an attempt was made to salvage stray recordings of his voice during the actual shoot of the film, the director eventually got the late actor’s brother, Shivarajkumar to do the needful. Fans got to hear this in the teaser of James that was released a few days ago.

Produced by Kishore Pathikonda, James also stars Sarath Kumar, Meka Srikanth and Aditya Menon, among others, while both of Puneeth’s brothers, Shivarajkumar and Raghavendra Rajkumar have cameos, making it the only film to star all three of them.