PremiumPower Star Puneeth Rajkumar's last film, James, to release on his birthday next year!
The late actor had finished the talkie portions and only had a couple of songs pending at the time of his untimely passing.
Last Updated: 10.17 AM, Nov 01, 2021
When Kannada cinema’s much-loved Power Star, Puneeth Rajkumar passed away unexpectedly on Friday (October 29), one question that his fans had was, ‘Will they get to see their favourite star one last time on the big screen?’; the actor, was, after all, working on his next, James, with lyricist-director Chetan Kumar.
The filmmaker, who is distraught at the tragic passing of his leading man, whom he has been meeting routinely for discussions about James in the last two years, including a day before Puneeth’s death, has a ray of hope for fans of the late actor. Initial reports had suggested that James was only about 75% done, but speaking to news media, Chetan said that Puneeth had, in fact, completed his ‘talkie portions’ and that only two songs of the film were pending with him. If it weren’t for his passing, Puneeth was scheduled to wind up James in November and begin work on Dvitva with Pawan Kumar. The fact that most of James is done means that the filmmaker will still be able to package the film and present it to audiences and has gone one step ahead and promised that he will release James on the late actor’s birthday next year, March 17.
However, since the actor had not dubbed for his portions and James was not being shot with sync sound, the team is looking at isolating Puneeth’s voice that was recorded during the shooting and enhancing the audio quality using latest available technology. The team of James will collaborate with a Mumbai-based company that specializes in audio for this.
James, says Chetan, is a film that Puneeth was excited about, as it sees him in three different shades. The filmmaker adds that the action portions, especially the ones shot in Kashmir, will be a treat for audiences. The film, which has music by Charan Raj, has Priya Anand paired with the late actor. It also stars Meka Srikanth, Adithya Menon, Sadhu Kokila, Anu Prabhakar Tilak, Chikkanna, Shine Shetty, Sudhendra Prasad and Padmaja Rao, among others.