Crime thrillers work well with new faces: Srinivas Raju 

Hubli Dhaba is the next film from director Srinivas Raju of the Dandupalya trilogy fame. A filmmaker, who has a penchant for crime dramas is making a comeback after five years with a murder mystery. A Kannada-Telugu bilingual, the film will be released in Telugu as Thaggedele. “The film is based on a true incident, which takes place in one day, has three parallel stories, and revolves around a dhaba,” says Srinivas, who explains his inclination towards crime subjects. “I always enjoyed working on murder mysteries as it involves drama and the violence speaks volumes. Moreover, OTT platforms have conditioned the audience to process intelligent films well.”

He feels that love stories and commercial entertainers are meant for only stars. “I believe thrillers are the best genres to accommodate new faces. I didn’t want to be out of sight and out of the audience’s mind by taking a long break.  So post-pandemic, I immediately began the project with the available sources,” he says. The film marks the Kannada debut of Naveen Chandra, it also has Divya Pillai, Ananya Sengupta, Ravi Shankar, and Raja Raveendar.

Interestingly, the director has managed to make the actors of the Dandupalya franchise do a cameo appearance. Hubli Dhaba is slated to release on November 11 and it is produced by Bharat Production. The film has Charan Arjun composing the music. Venkat Prasad has handled the cinematography.