Pruthvi Ambaar has a day by the beach as his Bollywood debut, Dear Dia, hits theatres

The 2020 Dia was a breakthrough film for all its three leading characters – Pruthvi Ambaar, Kushee Ravi and Dheekshith Shetty. Pruthvi, in particular, signed up for a bunch of new films in Kannada, and was the only one from the original film to be retained for its Hindi and Marathi remakes, both of which were directed by KS Ashoka, who made the Kannada version.

News of the Hindi remake hitting theatres should have been big for both Ashok and Pruthvi. Yet, when it did hit theatres, no one knew. Dear Dia, produced by Kamlesh Singh Kushwaha had Ujjwal Sharma in Dheekshith’s role, Mihika Kushwaha as Dia, the role that Kushee Ravi did with great aplomb, while Pruthvi reprised his character from the original. The film released in theatres on June 10 and, as per a popular online ticketing site, it has all of four shows in the Mumbai region, none in Delhi and one in Ahmedabad. No prizes for guessing that the Hindi version did not get a south India release.

It is not clear why the team settled for such a minimalistic release, with barely any screens. But what’s more baffling is the absolute lack of promotion in the run-up to it. Leading lady and debutante Mihika’s shared a few posts on social media, while Pruthvi had an image of the beach during a day “in his native” to announce that his Bollywood debut was releasing the following day. Considering how well received the Kannada original was when it was released and subsequently when it came on OTT owing to the pandemic, this lack of interest in the Hindi version is quite strange. The Kannada original can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video. 

The Marathi version has also been made by Ashoka and it remains to be seen how the release plan of that film will be handled. Back home, meanwhile, Pruthvi will next be seen in Shiva Rajkumar’s 123rd film Bairagee on July 1, followed by his solo-lead movie, Sugarless, on July 8.