Shreyas Manju’s next, the ultra-realistic love story Vishnu Priya, to be a summer 2023 release

Shreyas Manju, the son of veteran film producer K Manju, debuted in Kannada cinema with Paddehuli, which didn’t give him the initial boost that he was hoping for. He then signed two other films, which were as different as chalk and cheese. One was an ultra-realistic love story directed by National Award winning filmmaker VK Prakash, called Vishnu Priya and another, a hardcore commercial entertainer by director Nandakishore, called Raana.

Although Vishnu Priya was finished more than two years ago, Shreyas decided to bring Raana to theatres first. The film did not have a great run at the box office and now, we hear that the actor is set to release Vishnu Priya in a couple of months. While an official date has not been announced, it is said that the team is eyeing a summer 2023 theatrical outing.

OTTplay had caught up with Shreyas when Vishnu Priya was complete and ready for release, during which he had told that working with VKP, as the filmmaker is popularly known, made him a better actor. “VKP sir does not tolerate any form of heroism or exaggeration with body language, dialogue delivery or expressions. He got me to be as real as possible with the most subtle expressions. In a sense, this involved a lot of unlearning whatever I had done in my debut film. If you look at most Kannada films, they tend to be loud in all aspects. Vishnu Priya is nothing like that. After we were done, VKP sir called me aside and said, ‘I saw Paddehuli before we worked together, and I would have rated you a three on 10 as an actor back then. But now, I think you’ve shown that you are a seven or more’.”

Vishnu Priya, according to Shreyas, is not a regular Kannada film or run-of-the-mill love story. “The dialogues are different, there is no comedy track or action. It has a very realistic feel to it, much like what you see in Malayalam or Tamil films,” he had said.