Gurunandan is back with rom-com Raju James Bond; will be August release

Kannada actor Gurunandan, who was last seen in the film Missing Boy, is returning to the Raju franchise, which brought him his initial career breaks. The actor, who debuted with Cyberyugadhol Nava Yuva Prema Kavyam, got a hit with his next, First Rank Raju, which got him the moniker Rank Star. One of his next films, Raju Kannada Medium also did decently well at the box office, prompting another team to bank on the ‘Raju’ tag that’s been working for the actor.

Raju James Bond, a rom-com with Gurunandan in the lead, went on the floors way back in 2018. Directed by Deepak Madhuvanahalli, the film, we hear, is finally ready to hit theatres. The team has announced that they are targeting the second week of August, in the run-up to which they will release the first song from the film on June 7.

“The first video song will be out on June 7, which will kick-start the film’s promotional journey. Raju James Bond is a romantic comedy, which includes the who’s who of the Kannada film industry’s supporting actors on its cast. This is a film that will portray ‘Raju’ in a different avatar from what audiences are used to. The role has a commercial touch to it, including a few action sequences. This Raju is a street-smart guy and the bulk of the film will progress with loads of humour. It follows three friends played by Gurunandan, Chikkanna and Achyuth Kumar,” explains Deepak.

The film, based on an idea by Gurunandan, was developed into a script and screenplay by Deepak, who adds that the final edited version is all of 2 hours and 17 minutes only in run-time. Raju James Bond has music by Anoop Seelin, with Manohar Joshi filling in as cinematographer.

The team will release the film in Kannada only initially, and will take a call on dubbing it in other languages thereafter. The Kannada release, though, will be a simultaneous world-wide one, they said.