Shreyas Manju is a complete package: Raana director Nanda Kishore

Nanda Kishore is one of those few directors who has balanced between directing big stars and upcoming talents. The director, who made his debut with Adhyaksha starring Sharan, collaborated with Sudeep in Ranna, Upendra in Mukunda Murari, Dhruva Sarja in Pogaru, Pradeep Bagodia in Tiger, and Manuranjan Ravichandran in Bruhaspathi.

His latest will be Raana, which stars Shreyas Manju in the lead. Differentiating his experiences working with stars and newcomers, Nanda Kishore says, “It is very easy to handle a star because you can fit them into the character, but the difficulty lies in making the audience feel connected to the role. In the case of newcomers, it gets difficult to fit them into unique roles, but it is very easy to convince the audience.” The filmmaker also explains that just because the audience is intelligent, a director doesn't have to sweat it out to make their work feel intellectual. “As a director, we should stick to the basics of entertainment, and just keep it realistic,” he says.

Coming to Raana, Nanda Kishore reveals that story is not penned by him, and he has gone ahead with a script chosen by producer K Manju, who is the father of Shreyas. “Raana is a simple story about a youth who has unpredictable goals. How he goes about to reach them is the one line,” he says.

Nanda Kishore asserts that Shreyas Manju is an actor, who has a lot of potential and puts in a lot of effort. “Shreyas Manju is a complete package. He is an actor with a good personality, a good dancer, is good with stunts, and has the looks too. He is also dedicated, and aspiring.”

Presented by K Manju, and produced by Gujjal Purushotham, Raana stars Reeshma Nanaiah as the female lead and has Rajini Bharadwaj, Raghu, and Mohan Dhanraj playing prominent characters.

Raana will have music by Chandan Shetty and cinematography by Shekhar Chandra.