Kshetrapathi: First song, featuring Naveen Shankar and Archana Jois, out on THIS date

Gultoo and Gurudev Hoysala fame Naveen Shankar is gearing up for the release of his next as a leading man. The actor, who has had a string of good releases, including Dharani Mandala Madhyadholage, Hondisi Bareyiri and Gurudev Hoysala, in recent times, is headlining director Shrikant Katagi’s Kshetrapathi, which is likely to be in theatres either by the end of the month or latest by mid-August.

According to a source, the makers of Kshetrapathi were targeting a July 28 theatrical outing, which now has two claimants from Kannada cinema – Kousalya Supraja Rama and Achaar & Co. But the latest we hear is that the team will look at pushing this ahead to give them more time to plan the release and promotions. So far, only a teaser is out in the public domain, which was widely appreciated, as the film, set in north Karnataka, explores the agrarian crisis of the area.

Naveen plays an engineer who returns home to champion the cause of farmers and lead the ‘right fight for the right’, as the film’s tagline goes. He is paired with his Hondisi Bareyiri co-star Archana Jois yet again. She plays a journalist in the film. Achyuth Kumar, Rahul Ainapur, Krishna Hebbale, Shailashree Urs, Natya Ranga are also a part of the film.

Shrikant’s film has music by Ravi Basrur and in the lead up to the release, the team is set to drop the first single from the soundtrack. On July 9, the lyrical video of a duet featuring Naveen and Archana will be released. As for the film’s release, well, last evening they were gung-ho about announcing it today, which, according to sources was to have been July 28. But owing to certain developments that the team believes is for the greater good of the film, they may look at pushing it ahead by a few weeks.