Kannada actor Dhruva Sarja’s much-delayed Martin is definitely releasing on October 11. There had been rumours in recent days that the film may be pushed ahead after all, but it looks like the team is sticking to this plan, no matter what. The first single that came out today also affirms the release date – Martin has set up a box office clash with Rajinikanth’s Vettaiyan.

The first single from the Mani Sharma musical is a romantic duet called Jeeva Neene, sung by Sonu Nigam and Shrutika Samudrala, featuring Dhruva and heroine Vaibhavi Shandilya. Choreographed by Imran Sardhariya, this was the song for which the team had flown to Kashmir and experienced terrible mid-air turbulence on the way back.

As for the song, it’s a soft and melodious track shot across different breath-takingly beautiful locations. It’s visually very pleasing, and the song has a sweet note to it. What’s lacking, though, is chemistry between the lead pair – Vaibhavi looks stunning and tries her best, but despite the multiple pecks exchanged between the couple, there are literally no sparks.

Martin, which also stars Nikitin Dheer and Anveshi Jain, among others, is based on a story by Dhruva’s uncle, Action King Arjun Sarja. The film has been directed by AP Arjun, who launched the actor more than a decade ago with Addhuri. The film has been in production for quite a while and was initially meant to be in theatres along with Kantara, way back in 2022. Since then, the team has been sorting out production and post-production delays and has finally settled on October 11 as the D-day.

More recently, Martin was in the news following issues with the VFX work contract, when producer Uday K Mehta was forced to seek police intervention after the vendors failed to deliver on their promise. This was followed by allegations that director Arjun had taken a massive commission to get the work allotted to them, which he has denied. He did, however, admit that all has not been well between him and Uday, which had been rumoured a while ago. In fact, it was said that some of the production delays were because of issues between Dhruva and the producer.

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