Viraat - Sanjana Anand starrer romantic thriller with Dinakar Thoogudeepa titled 'Royal'

Dinakar Thoogudeepa was earlier meant to direct Puneeth Rajkumar in a commercial entertainer backed by Jayanna Films. This was to be the production house's 23rd venture and third collaboration with the Powerstar but the latter's rather untimely and tragic demise got the plans derailed. 

Following this, Dinakar Thoogudeepa is said to have put the Puneeth Rajkumar project on the back burner to instead work on a new script featuring two young actors in the form of Viraat and Sanjana Anand. The title of this project was unveiled earlier today, on February 6th.

Titled Royal, the film's first-look poster shows Viraat's character sitting on a throne-like seat in a sea of currency notes, some of which he also brandishes. Previous reports have revealed that Dinakar Thoogudeepa was keen on putting together a youthful commercial entertainer that also featured thriller elements and the producer, after reading the story, deemed Viraat to be the perfect casting choice. "EVERYONE acts like a “KING” until the “REAL ROYAL KING” arrives!" read the caption of the social media post.

Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar and Vijay Kiragandur unveiled the title earlier today at a special gathering which also saw the producer-duo, director Dinakar Thoogudeepa, the lead pair of Viraat and Sanjana Anand, and a few others in attendance. 

As far as the rest of the cast and crew of Royal is concerned, Raghu Mukherjee, Chaya Singh, Achyuth Kumar, Rangayana Raghu, Gopalkrishna Deshpande, and others, too, are part of the cast. Charan Raj scores the music with Sanketh Mysore and K.M. Prakash handling cinematography & editing respectively.

Royal becomes Viraat's third film as an actor with his second film Addhuri Lover slated to release later this year. Incidentally, Sanjana Anand was originally cast to play the lead opposite Viraat in Addhuri Lover but the Salaga actress chose to walk out of the project owing to scheduling conflicts. She was later replaced by Priyanka Kumar.