Vijayanand teaser: Rishika Sharma’s film presents the tale of one man’s dream to have India's largest logistics firm

Kannada filmmaker Rishika Sharma’s next is the biopic of Padma Shri Vijay Sankeshwar, a name that may not ring a bell for many. What will, is the name of the logistics company he founded years ago, as well as the media houses he runs. Vijay Sankeshwar is the man behind Vijayanand Logistics Ltd, better known as Vijayanand Roadlines or VRL, for that matter.

A self-made man, Sankeshwar began his transport business with one truck. Rishika’s film explores how he went from one truck to over 5,000 vehicles and the hardships he had along the way. Starring Nihal Rajput in the title role, the film also has Anant Nag playing his father BG Sankeshwar, while Bharath Bopanna plays Anand Sankeshwar, his son.

The film, which was launched last year in Hubbali, is reportedly complete and today, Rishika gave audiences a first glimpse of what to expect when it releases in Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. The film also stars V Ravichandran, Shine Shetty, Archana Kottige, Siri Prahlad and Vinaya Prasad in pivotal roles.

The biopic will chronicle Sankeshwar’s journey from owning a single truck to making it India’s largest logistics fleet, his tryst with running media houses (Vijay Karnataka and Vijay Times, which were sold to the Times Group, Vijayvani and the news channel Digvijay 24*7) and brief political outing as well. A former BJP MP, Sankeshwar had floated his own party, Kannada Nadu Party, which failed to take off, unlike his business ventures. Produced by Vijay’s son, Anand Sankeshwar, as their VRL Film Productions’ maiden venture, the film has music by Gopi Sundar.

Nihal and Rishika, who had earlier collaborated on the supernatural film Trunk, were joined by creative head and editor Hemanth Kumar to work on the script of the film, which took them two years. It is only after they were sure that they’d captured the tale of Vijay Sankeshwar well enough that they went on floors.