Sumukha, who made his Kannada debut with Physics Teacher and went on to win attention with Yogaraj Bhat’s Manada Kadalu, is set to star alongside Esha Lankesh in Preetham Gubbi’s upcoming film. The announcement comes just ahead of Sumukha’s birthday on September 9.

The team had recently announced Esha Lankesh as the heroine but had kept the name of the male lead under wraps. Esha, the granddaughter of renowned writer and journalist P Lankesh and daughter of filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh, is making her acting debut with the film.

Sumukha comes from a theatre background and has been taking up varied projects since his entry into films. He is also part of a Malayalam film and is working on filmmaker Pannaga Bharana’s next, which stars Parul Yadav and Karthik Mahesh. He also has Rajasthan Diaries, directed by Nanditha Yadav and co-starring Manvitha Kamath, awaiting its release. With a few more projects in discussion, Sumukha is steadily adding different kinds of roles to his slate.

As for the film directed by Preetham Gubbi, it is being produced by Ranganath Kempanahalli and Atharva R Kempanahalli under the Nidhi Films Productions banner. Sumukha and Esha Lankesh headline the film, with the title, remaining cast and technical crew expected to be announced shortly.