Sumanth Shailendra, who is an established face in Kannada cinema, is all set to test waters in the Telugu industry. We hear the actor has been silently working over the last 10 months on a film titled Brand Babu and has completed shooting for the same. The film is now slated for release in the first week of August. When asked about this move, Sumanth says, “It is a bigger industry, bigger market and I wanted to be in a place, where people are mad about watching film. In fact people celebrate cinema there,” he says.

The actor, who took a two-year break from Kannada films, had been concentrating on his Telugu project for which he had a makeover. Produced by his father Shailendra Babu, the film has a story written by Maruthi (who has directed films like Bale Bale Mogadivoy, Prema Katha Chithram) and is directed by Prabhakar P. “It will be a total romcom and family entertainer. Mine is a boy-next-door character, who is a brand freak. I even went about meeting a few people who are brand freaks to help me with my character. It is going to be pucca show-off role and the film’s title is apt,” says Sumanth.

Brand Babu has Murali Sharma playing Sumanth's father and also features Eesha Rebba as the female lead.

Meanwhile, Sumanth has signed two more films in Telugu with a big production house. He plans to announce those after the release of his debut.