Is there a connect between Anup Bhandari's Rangitaranga and Vikrant Rona?

It’s the Vikrant Rona month and a lot of the conversations on social media these days are revolving around the Kiccha Sudeep film that is set to release in theatres on the 28th of July. Vikrant Rona is Anup Bhandari’s first film with Sudeep and there is a lot of expectation attached to the project, given its fantasy action-drama genre and the fact that the team shot the entire film at specially-created sets of jungles, temples, and a life-size ark, among others.

The much-awaited trailer of the film had been released on May 23 and ever since, there have been whispers about a possible connect between Vikrant Rona and Anup’s debut directorial, Rangitaranga. Fans have pointed out two possible similarities - the presence of a well with a history and the Gara Gara Gaggara Jarba… line, which features in the Dennana Dennana song from Rangitaranga as well. The speculation now is that closer to the release Anup will take to social media and ask everyone to see Rangitaranga, before entering the world of Vikrant Rona.

The connect, say fans is in the village Kamarottu, as the newspaper clippings that Sudeep as Vikrant Rona is seen referring to, as he investigates a case of people going missing mysteriously, are about the death of a young girl in Kamarottu. Could it be that seven years after Rangitaranga, Anup is presenting an origin story to all the mysterious events that take place in that village?

We tried asking Anup, but the filmmaker neatly side-stepped the question and said we should try and figure it ourselves when Vikrant Rona opens in theatres at the end of the month. Well, there’s still just over three weeks for the film to release, until then, maybe a re-run of Rangitaranga wouldn’t do us any harm. What say?