Jaggesh: No matter how much I make audiences laugh, I send them out of movie halls with a social message

Navarasa Nayaka Jaggesh is currently busy promoting his next release, Raghavendra Stores. His first collaboration with director Santhosh Ananddram and the production house Hombale Films, the film was supposed to be in theatres way back in August last year, but was pushed ahead for reasons best known to the team. For a while, there were rumours of a minor discord between Jaggesh and the banner, after his film Thotapuri chapter 1 clashed with Hombale’s Kantara at the box office and lost that battle. In fact, there was speculation that Raghavendra Stores may not even get a theatrical release and would go directly to OTT.

But then, after months of not saying a word about the film, it was announced that Hombale Films would bring it to theatres after all. The film will release on April 28. Talking about the film, Jaggesh said that it gives him immense pleasure to collaborate with Santhosh, for whom it is the fourth directorial venture. Raghavendra Stores, as the teaser and trailer reveals, is a comedy about a 40-something bachelor who works as a cook at a popular eatery. While his quest to find a soulmate is peppered with ample comedy, Jaggesh says that no film of his is complete without a pertinent social message. “No matter how much I make people laugh in the theatre, I will send them out with a social message. That’s been my policy for a while and Raghavendra Stores is no different,” he said, speaking to Film Companion South.

The veteran actor adds that what he found remarkable about working with this team is that they spend as much as six months or more on pre-production to finalize and fine-tune a script to perfection and then go ahead and shoot the film in record time. That level of dedication and professionalism is what drew him to the project, he says, adding that Kannada audiences will see Jaggesh in a fresh avatar in Raghavendra Stores.