Shiva Rajkumar’s Bairagee sets up three-way clash at the box office

Last evening, the team of Century Star Shiva Rajkumar’s 123rdfilm Bairagee announced its release date. The film will be in theatres across Karnataka on July 1. Interestingly, two other Kannada films have also zeroed in on the date, making it a three-way clash at the box office, as of now. KM Chaitanya’s Abbbabba, starring Likith Shetty and Amrutha Iyengar is one, while anchor-actress-filmmaker Sheethal Shetty’s Nirup Bhandari-starrer Window Seat, which also has Amrutha and Sanjana Anand in it.

Bairagee, which is Tamil filmmaker Vijay Milton’s Kannada cinema debut, was wrapped up in mid-January this year. Vijay had put up a social media post at the time, in which he specifically thanked music director Anoop Seelin, because of who this project happened. Vijay wrote, “With the blessings of parents friends and almighty completed #bairagee wonderful xperience and amazing memories from @NimmaShivanna @Krishnasarthaka @Dhananjayaka @AmbarPruthvi @YashaShivakumar tnq #anoopseelin sir the sole reason for this film.”

Produced by Krishna Sarthak, Bairagee is reportedly the Kannada remake of the Tamil film Asuran, although the team claims that almost 50% of the narrative has been changed around to suit the sensibilities of Kannada audiences. The film also stars Dhananjaya, who reunites with Shiva Rajkumar after Tagaru, Pruthvi Ambaar, Chikkanna, Shashi Kumar, Umashree, Yasha Shivakumar and Anjali, among others.

Bairagee will be Shiva Rajkumar’s first release since Bhajarangi 2, which had hit theatres on October 29, a dark day in Kannada cinema history, when his brother and Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar succumbed to cardiac arrest. Dhananjaya was last seen in Badava Rascal and Pushpa The Rise, while Pruthvi has not had a release since his Kannada debut, Dia, in 2020. The teaser of Bairagee had been released a day prior to Puneeth’s last commercial film, James, and the two were then bundled together for screening.