Jaggesh’s comedy flick Thotapuri to lock horns with Martin and Kantara at the box office

The Dasara box-office battle is getting hotter by the day. While Action Prince Dhruva Sarja was the first to book September 30 for his next film with director AP Arjun, actor-filmmaker Rishab Shetty’s first Hombale Films production, Kantara, also announced the same release date. And now, a third party has joined this box-office tussle. Navarasa Nayaka Jaggesh’s Thotapuri, directed by Vijayaprasad, will have its first part in theatres on September 30.

Director Vijayaprasad, who had both Petromax and Thotapuri up for release, had earlier said that he was looking at bringing the Jaggesh film to theatres first. He’s now changed that up with the Sathish Ninasam, Nagabhushana and Hariprriya-starrer Petromax to release on July 15. A September 30 release also means that there will be a considerable gap between Jaggesh’s Raghavendra Stores, which will be out on August 5, and Thotapuri.

Although the trailer has been released, the team remains tight-lipped about the subject of the two-part film. While much of the trailer is in trademark Vijayaprasad style heavy on double-meaning jokes, the underlying current is that of communal harmony and discrimination based on caste and creed. The film, which has music by Anoop J Seelin, also stars Aditi Prabhudeva, Dhananjaya, Suman Ranganathan, Hema Dutt, Veena Sundar and Dattanna, among others. It has been produced by KA Suresh for Moniflix Studios and Suresh Arts.

Thotapuri is being marketed as the first south-Indian film, not because it being released in Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, but as it is only in the south of the country that you’d see Hindus, Muslims and Christians living in close proximity to each other. Lead actor Jaggesh has been quoted as saying that Thotapuri is multi-fold better than their previous collaboration Neer Dose and that he is confident that Vijayaprasad will bag a state award for the film.