Roopesh Shetty: Don’t watch Manku Bhai Foxy Rani expecting the Roopesh Shetty that was on Bigg Boss Kannada 9

Last weekend, Roopesh Shetty won the ninth season of Bigg Boss Kannada, prior to which he had spent six weeks on the first season of Bigg Boss Kannada OTT, which he’d also emerged victorious on. It would not be wrong to say that Roopesh is one of the most popular figures right now, which is also why the team of his much-delayed Kannada film, Manku Bhai Foxy Rani, are bringing it to theatres while he’s still ‘hot property’.

Roopesh, though, has a word of caution for audiences. “Manku Bhai Foxy Rani is a film that I did in 2019. I do not want audiences to head to theatres expecting to see the Roopesh Shetty that they’d seen over the last 140-odd days on their TV screens. Instead, they should head to theatres to watch a film with good content. Manku Bhai… is essentially a love story, in which I am paired with Geetha Bharati Bhat. She is also a totally different person today, having lost oodles of weight following a stringent fitness regimen. This is a character-driven film, in which the content is the hero. My character is that of a Yakshagana performer from a village, who has no idea about love. How he then reacts to the idea of love and marriage forms the major backdrop of the film,” says Roopesh, who had to gain weight for the role and take off his beard too.

Speaking after the trailer launch event, Roopesh had said that when he had gone into the Bigg Boss Kannada house for the OTT season, he thought the film would release in his absence. But it’s only now that he got to know that the team waited patiently, which he reckons was a smart move. “I had told Gagan to sell it to an OTT and ensure some business. I wondered why he didn’t listen to me, but now I realize it was a smart move, because I am fresh off Bigg Boss Kannada Season 9,” says Roopesh.

Manku Bhai Foxy Rani, which also stars Geetha Bharati Bhat in the lead, will be in theatres on January 13.