It's Dhananjaya vs Dhananjaya at the box office when Badava Rascal takes on Pushpa's Jolly Reddy

Dhananjaya, who is currently basking in all the rave reviews coming in for his film Rathnan Prapancha, which was a common man’s journey of self-discovery, is now shifting focus to his next date with audiences. This December, the actor has not one, but two releases. The Christmas weekend is going to be really busy for the actor, as his debut production Badava Rascal is set for a theatrical release. This, according to the team, is also a gangster flick, but one with a quirky take, with Dhananjaya in the lead, along with his Popcorn Monkey Tiger co-star Amrutha Iyengar, which was recently cleared with a U/A censor certificate. Directed by debutant Shankar Garu, the film has music by Vasuki Vaibhav, with the song Udupi Hotelu already a rage.

The film, however, will be in stiff competition with the Telugu movie Pushpa: The Rise Part 1. The Allu Arjun-starrer is the much-awaited first part of the Sukumar directorial. Also starring Rashmika Mandanna, Fahadh Faasil, Jagapathi Babu, Kishore, Deepak Shetty, Anasuya, Anish Kuruvila and Prakash Raj, among others, the film also has namma Dhananjaya as one of the antagonists, Jolly Reddy. The actor has been quoted as saying that Jolly Reddy is a very colourful character that brings out the bad boy in him and that although he is one of the antagonists in the tale, the role is refreshingly new. Sukumar, apparently, cast Dhananjaya based on his roles in Tagaru and Ram Gopal Varma’s Bhairava Geetha. Pushpa: The Rise is based on real-life incidents about red sandalwood smuggling in Andhra Pradesh.

So, it turns out that both of Dhananjaya’s films at Christmas have grey shades. The questions now is, which one will you watch?