James teaser: Action-packed moments of Puneeth Rajkumar taking on the big baddies of the ‘world mafia’

#BoloBoloJames has been trending for a while and the long wait for the teaser of the late Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar’s James is over. It’s finally here. But was the wait worth it? A couple of weeks ago, on Republic Day, the team had released a special poster and a subsequent still from the film of Puneeth in army fatigues, in what was a clear nod that the actor is playing an army man in James. Now that the teaser is here, it appears that the army bits may just be a back story to who Santhosh (Puneeth) is. But otherwise, James appears to be a hardcore commercial entertainer with Puneeth taking on the world mafia controlling the markets.

Kannada cinema’s dearly departed superstar Puneeth was in the midst of completing James when he succumbed to a massive heart attack on October 29, last year. After the immediate shock of the loss of his lead actor, who’d just done some green mat shots at his home prior to his passing, Chethan assured fans that Puneeth’s efforts would not go in vain. He had enough footage to package the film and present it, he said. Apparently, at the time of his death, Puneeth had finished all the talkie portions and only a couple of songs were pending to be shot.

The only major issue that the team foresaw was that Puneeth had not dubbed for James, and it was not being shot in sync sound. Regardless, they made an initial attempt to salvage his voice captured during the making, in the hope of using technological advancements to enhance the quality and use it in the final mix. That, however, did not pan out and the makers eventually got the actor’s brother and Century Star Shivarajkumar to do the needful.

In fact, James not only features Shivarajkumar’s voice, but a cameo as well. He and Raghavendra Rajkumar have both shot for guest appearances, making the Chethan directorial the only film to feature all three brothers. James, which is currently slated for a March 17 theatrical release, to coincide with the late actor’s birthday, also stars Priya Anand, R Sarathkumar, Anu Prabhakar-Mukherjee, Srikanth, Mukesh Rishi, Shine Shetty, Tilak, Chikkanna and Aditya Menon among others.