Kiccha Sudeep on Vikrant Rona's Rangitaranga connect: I'm okay as long as audiences don’t say it is the same film

In the run-up to the release of Vikrant Rona, director Anup Bhandari was often asked if the film had any connect to his debut film Rangitaranga, especially after the trailer came out and there were glimpses that were reminiscent of the earlier movie. The filmmaker, though, remained steadfastly tight-lipped, saying audiences should take a call whether there is a connect or not.

After the film came out on Thursday, a section of the audience was left disappointed because they felt that Vikrant Rona was a tad too similar to Rangitaranga. They called out the elements that Anup had ‘repeated’, albeit on a bigger scale, with a big star in tow. Interestingly, leading man Sudeep had always maintained that he had not seen Rangitaranga, so when he as recently asked about the comments about the similarity with Anup’s first film, he said he was not perturbed by that.

Speaking to an online news portal, Sudeep explained his stance by alluding to director Shankar’s film and how they are often about a common man fighting the system, packaged with a social message. Vikrant Rona is in the same vein, says the superstar, adding that if people thought it was Rangitaranga 2, or that it was like Rangitaranga, he is okay with it. The question, he said, was if it is the same film. Rangitaranga and Vikrant Rona are not the same, he maintains. As long as people are watching his film, Sudeep says that it does not matter to him whether they call it Rangitaranga 2 or 3. It’s from the same director in the same universe, but it is different and that is what matters, according to him.

Produced by Manjunath and Shalini Gowda and co-produced by Alankar Pandian, Vikrant Rona is currently in theatres in 3D and 2D in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. The film’s satellite and digital rights have been sold to Zee Kannada and Zee5 respectively. The Hindi version, however, is going to a different streamer, most likely SonyLiv.