Vikrant Rona and the mysterious case of the missing elephant

When the team of Kiccha Sudeep’s latest release Vikrant Rona was shooting for the film in Kerala, it was reported that they’d canned a song featuring an elephant called Raghuram. Choreographer Jani master had posted pictures of him with the pachyderm and a video too. It was later reported that the team shot a song featuring the elephant. The expense for the elephant was Rs 1.2 lakh per day, said reports. The team shot for the song for 5 days, apparently.

Yet when the film came out on July 28. There was no sign of an elephant, or, for that matter, any animal in the forest areas of Kamarottu. Barring a sequence of a snake slithering by or bats flying, the world of Vikrant Rona does not feature any other animal. Eagle-eyed fans, of course, have been asking about this on social media platforms, but the team has not addressed this at all. The song in question was apparently shot when the film was still called Phantom, so, perhaps, it didn’t fit into the scheme of things of Vikrant Rona. While we hope they will release the song separately at some point, there’s a rumour that the team didn’t actually shoot with the elephant.

A source claims that the pachyderm Raghuram, who has since passed on, apparently belonged to the owners of the house that the team was shooting at. As the star attraction on set, the elephant became a part of several photographs, but not the film, adds the source.

Meanwhile, Vikrant Rona, produced by Shalini and Manjunath Gowda is currently in theatres. The film is believed to have grossed around Rs 115 crore worldwide so far. Net collection is yet to be announced by the team. Reports suggest that after a fairly decent start to its box office outing, Vikrant Rona’s fortunes have been floundering across markets. In the Hindi and Telugu belt it has apparently fallen drastically, with Karnataka still holding good.