James OTT release: SonyLiv confirms streaming date for Puneeth Rajkumar’s last commercial film

Kannada cinema’s Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar was still shooting for the Chethan Kumar directorial James when he tragically passed away following cardiac arrest, aged only 46, in October last year. At the time, Chethan had about 20-days-worth of shoot left, but as the captain of the ship, he was determined not to let Puneeth’s effort go to waste. Between October 29, when Puneeth passed away, and early February Chethan managed to stitch together the film using CGI and even a stunt double for an action sequence, and had it ready for its March 17 release in five languages.

The film, Chethan said, was meant to be a treat for fans of the late Puneeth Rajkumar and the perfect send-off for the actor. Since it’s March 17 release, James has done well at the box office and closed satellite and digital deals as well. The film has been sold to Star Suvarna for its TV premiere and SonyLiv for streaming rights.

According to Chethan, the deal with SonyLiv was to make the film available to stream on or before the 30th day of its theatrical release. “James is still going strong in theatres, and we are confident of it continuing its dream run in the weeks to come because Appu sir was known to draw family crowds over weekends. Producer Kishore Pathikonda is looking at talking to SonyLiv to extend the terms and conditions of the contract to a later streaming date,” Chethan told us earlier today.

However, the latest buzz in the industry is that James will start streaming on SonyLiv from April 14 in what is being seen as double bonanza for Kannada film audiences. While the big theatrical of the day is the Yash-starrer KGF: Chapter 2, Kannada film aficionados can also catch James on the same day. Late on Wednesday night, the streaming platform confirmed the development that James would indeed start streaming in all languages from April 14. 

James, which paired Puneeth with his Raajakumara co-star Priya Anand, also starred, Meka Srikanth, Nawab Shah, Sarath Kumar, Tarak Ponnappa, John Kokken, Chikkanna, Shine Shetty, Tilak, among others, with Shivarajkumar and Raghavendra Rajkumar also appearing in cameos. Since Puneeth’s demise came before post-production began and he had not dubbed for his role, his brother Shivarajkumar provided his voice talent.