On Ganesha Chaturthi, Hemanth M Rao sprung a surprise tweet announcing a project with Rakshit Shetty. But before the post could go viral, Hemanth mentioned that it was only an idea at present, which he hopes will materialise in the near future.

CE caught up with the director who says that Rakshit and he have been good friends, and have been discussing the Tenali concept. "He liked the character sketch and we did an instant photo shoot. I will take this project further, but I'm not working within any stipulated time frame," adds Hemanth, who is joining hands with producer Pushkar Mallikarjuanaiah.

Hemanth is clear that he is currently focussing on Kavaludaari, which is now in the post-production stage. "I usually have an emotional connect with my projects and don't deviate from it until its release. Tenali is still in the planning stage. I will start with the script once I am completely done with Kavaludaari. Rakshit also has a couple of projects on floors," he says.

The adventure-thriller is set in the Independence era and will include a number of historical elements. "Especially with a name like Tenali, we are looking at making it clever and witty. I like knowing my characters during the scripting stage. Doing a look test with Rakshit for Tenali is only a motivation to get back to writing it," he says.

Rakshit is currently juggling between Avane Srimannarayana, directed by Sachin, and 777 Charlie, helmed by Kiranraj, after which he will be working on Richie.