Raj B Shetty’s Toby to release in Telugu too on August 25?

The buzz in industry circles for quite a while has been that Kannada actor-filmmaker Raj B Shetty will take his next film Toby to theatres as a pan-India release . The film’s more universal subject – revenge drama – lends itself easily to a pan-India outing, it was thought. Raj has not announced any such plans and insists that he will take the original Kannada version of the film to as many markets as possible. But if there is demand for dubbed versions, he will make it happen. Speaking to a digital platform to promote Toby, Raj said that he and his team are in discussion with distributors from the AP/TS region about releasing a Telugu version of the film. While a deal has not been struck yet, if it does, Toby will get a Telugu version release on August 25 in that belt. If not, Raj will stick to his original plan and take the Kannada film everywhere. Raj does not rule out the possibility of pushing dubbed versions into the market depending on demand after the original comes out and if the word about Toby is good among audiences.

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Considering that he had not dubbed his two films – Ondu Motteya Kathe and Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana - in other languages, the expectation was that he would change this with Toby, as Raj has been saying that it is a movie that has been made at a much larger scale than his previous projects. Ondu Motteya Kathe, at least, has had Hindi and Malayalam remakes, while Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana’s Tamil, Telugu and Bangla remake rights have been sold, but the films have not been made.

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Toby, which Raj wrote based on a story by TK Dayanand, is a film set in Kumta. The actor-filmmaker plays the title role and is joined by Chaithra J Achar, Deepak Shetty, Samyukta Hornad and Gopalkrishna Deshpande, among others, among the main cast. The film has been directed by Basil AL Chalakkal, with Midhun Mukundan scoring the music.