Kranti censored; all decks cleared for Darshan’s Republic Day release

There’s no stopping Challenging Star Darshan’s Kranti in its tracks now. The film, which is coming to theatres on January 26, has been censor certified and granted U/A, clearing the decks for its release. The team has put out a first list of theatres for the grand release, but advance booking it yet to open. It is expected to be available over the weekend.

Kranti is Darshan’s second film with the team, including director V Harikrishna and producers Shylaja Nag and B Suresha. While they tackled the oil mafia in their debut venture together, Yajamana, this time around, the subject is privatisation of education. Darshan is the title character Kranti, a successful entrepreneur NRI, who returns home to safeguard his alma mater, and, in the process, also save a bunch of government schools from falling into the wrong hands. The film, according to the team, has a strong message that will be told as a pakka commercial entertainer, with the right amount of drama, romance, action, comedy, etc.

The film reunites Darshan with his Bulbul and Ambareesha heroine, Rachita Ram and boasts a massive ensemble cast, including Samyukta Hornad, Girija Lokesh, Achyuth Kumar, V Ravichandran, Giri Shivanna, Sumalatha Ambareesh, Sampath Raj, P Ravi Shankar, Tarun Raj Arora, Dharmanna Kadur, Mandya Ramesh, Sadhu Kokila, among others. Kranti was initially announced as a pan-India project, but then news broke that the story was about an NRI fighting for the cause of a Kannada medium school, prompting netizens to ask how it could be justified for release in other centres. Later, when the team began promotions, Darshan was categoric that it was made as a Kannada film, as the subject is about Kannada-medium schools. The film would still be dubbed and released in other centres, but he would not promote it anywhere other than Karnataka.