Jaggesh’s Raghavendra Stores sets up box office clash with Vijay Raghavendra’s Raaghu

Almost a year ago, on the eve of the release of KGF: Chapter 2, Hombale Films had revealed teasers of two of its upcoming projects. One was Rishab Shetty’s Kantara, while the other was a comedy featuring Navarasa Nayaka Jaggesh. Directed by Santhosh Ananddram, who has a continuing relationship with the banner, the Jaggesh film was meant to be in theatres on August 5, but then, for reasons best known to the makers, it was pushed ahead, with no alternate date announcement in sight.

Subsequently, when Kantara released on September 30, Jaggesh too had a movie in theatres – Thotapuri – Chapter 1, with the latter failing to create ripples at the box office. At the time, Jaggesh made a public comment, which was widely believed to be a veiled attack on Hombale films, which had backed Kantara and Raghavendra Stores. Subsequently, there were reports that the banner had dropped plans to give Jaggesh’s film a theatrical release and hinted that it would be directly on OTT. As the months went by, though, it was revealed that Raghavendra Stores will come to theatres after all. It is releasing in theatres on April 28 and will clash with actor Vijay Raghavendra’s solo-act thriller Raaghu at the box office. Vijay’s film will only have him appear onscreen. Jaggesh’s film, meanwhile, is an adult comedy about a 40-year-old unmarried cook.

April 28, though, has also been booked by two other big ticket films, so Raghavendra Stores and Raaghu will have stiff competition. For starters, there is the second instalment of Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan. Also vying for a share of the market on that day is Akhil Akkineni’s Agent. While Ponniyin Selvan and Agent will release in Tamil and Telugu respectively, both are pan-India movies with dubbed versions in Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, and Tamil and Telugu (as the case may be).