In January this year, Kannada superstar Kiccha Sudeep had told his fans that his next collaboration with Vikrant Rona director Anup Bhandari, Billa Ranga Baashaa, would take off in 2024. While delays in the production of his next, Max, cast a shadow of doubt on the start of his next project, it seems that Anup is ready to make a grand announcement after all.

Anup Bhandari's announcement for an announcement

Earlier today, Anup took to social media to post that the much-awaited update on Billa Ranga Baashaa will happen on the actor’s birthday on September 2. “It’s an honour to be association with Kiccha Sudeep sir once again. There is another exciting collaboration and an announcement on Sept 2 at 10 am,” wrote the filmmaker. The question now is if Anup is set to announce the start of Billa Ranga Baashaa, or if he has a surprise up his sleeve for fans and audiences. Anup had, after all, also announced an adaptation of the tale of Ashwatthama to be made with Sudeep in the lead.

Billa Ranga Baashaa, a futuristic fantasy film set in 2209 AD, was the first that Anup wanted to do with Sudeep. But the logistics of mounting a film of that scale did not work out at that point, and the duo instead chose to collaborate on Vikrant Rona. This film opened to mixed reviews, primarily because it bore a heavy resemblance to Anup Bhandari’s earlier RangiTaranga, a detail that he chose to keep under wraps until the release. Later, the team went on record to say that Vikrant Rona was set in the RangiTaranga universe.

During the promotions of Vikrant Rona, OTTplay had asked Sudeep about returning to direction, which, he said could wait, since there were filmmakers writing exciting scripts for him. He was particularly thrilled about reuniting with Anup and for the longest time it was thought that his next after Vikrant Rona would be with the same team. Anup, who has been talking about Billa Ranga Baashaa since 2018, though, said he was still finetuning the script and that is how Max came to be #Kiccha46.

Could it be that #Kiccha47 is Billa Ranga Baashaa? #Kiccha48 has already been announced as Sudeep’s return to direction for KRG Studios, King Kichcha. The actor was also rumoured to have projects with director Vetrimaran, Cheran and Hemanth M Rao in the pipeline. While the first two have had no update, Hemanth will soon begin work on his film with Shivarajkumar, Bhairavana Kone PaaTa, so any film with Sudeep may not happen before late 2025 or early 2026.

Read Also: Is Amazon’s The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power connected to Warner Bros’ new LOTR trilogy?