Shivarajkumar’s Sri Mutthu Cine Services to venture into film production with Vamshi directorial

A few years ago, Kannada cinema’s Hattrick Hero Shivarajkumar established a production house called Sri Mutthu Cine Services (SMCS), which would be run by his daughter Niveditha. The objective of the banner was to foray into content creation for the OTT space and SMCS even produced a couple of web shows – Honeymoon and Hate U Romeo – in collaboration with Sakath Studios. While Honeymoon’s Kannada version had a delayed release on Voot Select last year, Hate U Romeo, which was their first venture, came even later on Talkies App.

For a while, there’s been no word on what’s cooking at the production house, but according to the latest, Niveditha is set to make a major announcement on May 1. According to the buzz in industry circles, SCMS will expand its portfolio to include films as well and will kick off its first movie production shortly. The film, we hear, will be directed by Vamshi Krishna Srinivas, who’d assisted on Mayabazar 2016 and was, more recently, seen as an actor in the anthology Pentagon. Vamshi will also play the lead in the film that will be officially announced next week.

But why is Shivarajkumar maintaining two banners if the objective is to make films? According to industry insiders, the newly-launched Geetha Pictures, which began with the Century Star’s milestone 125thfilm Vedha and has announced Bhairathi Ranagal, the Narthan directed film with the character from Mufti, as its next. While Geetha Pictures focuses on big productions that will most likely have Shivarajkumar on board, SMCS will operate as a separate entity, focusing on creating web series and feature films with young talent. At the moment, no other details are available about the banner’s first movie production.