Puneeth Rajkumar's last film to release on his birth anniversary: Chethan Kumar

It was a special and emotional moment for fans of late Puneeth Rajkumar on Republic Day, when a special poster with his army officer look from James was revealed. In fact, it was wife Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar who first shared the look and poster on her social media pages.

"We chose Republic Day to reveal this look as it shows Puneeth sir in the army uniform. This will also mark our first step towards sharing more details and material from the film for fans," reveals director Chethan Kumar.
It has been an emotional journey for Chethan and team as they wrapped up shooting for the film last week. "On the one hand, I am happy and blessed that I got to work with him on his last film, but at the same time, it is sad that he isn't with us for the release. Every film release is like a festival and this time, it will be a lot more emotional. It hurts to see the footage when we are editing and while we know he is there with us through the journey, blessing us, it does get emotionally tough for us," says Chethan.

Will the film keep up the promise of releasing on Puneeth's birth anniversary? "We had had this conversation about releasing the film on his birthday a couple of times with Puneeth sir since it was also a Thursday, which is auspicious. We are now working towards fulfilling that promise and this reveal of his army officer look is the first step towards that," shares Chethan.