The first trailer for the wild-looking Indian action-adventure film Vikrant Rona was unveiled on Thursday. Starring Kichcha Sudeepa—who is popularly known mononymously as Sudeep—the film is being touted as a 3D experience at a time when the format has appeared to have lost its appeal worldwide. Modeled after the Indiana Jones films (with a hint of the Tomb Raider and Uncharted video games thrown in) Vikrant Rona is the latest in a recent new wave of visual effects-heavy Indian films that aim to target audiences across the diverse nation.
The nearly three-minute trailer opens with a woman narrating the story of a cursed village haunted by a mysterious man known only as the Devil. “It was a land that everyone feared,” she says, but then came a man who knew no fear—Vikrant Rona. He arrives aboard an old-timey boat, wearing a dusty leather jacket, smoking a cigar, and wielding a vintage handgun.
Seemingly a cross between a hard-boiled detective and a whip-cracking adventurer, Vikrant sets about investigating the mysterious happenings in the cursed village. His investigation inevitably leads him to the Devil. Having already shown us glimpses of some jungle-set motorbike action, the trailer teases some rainy fight sequences that seem to have been inspired by Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster. It is eventually revealed that the Devil and Vikrant might be the same person.
Although Vikrant Rona is being sold as what is popularly known as a “pan-Indian” film, it features talent that predominantly works in the Kannada language industry, which is based in the southern state of Karnataka. India is home to several thriving film industries beyond Bollywood, which is the generic name used for the Hindi language industry, based in the city of Mumbai. But recently—especially after the pandemic—several south Indian films have been crossing over into the north. The recent Telugu language film RRR, for instance, was not just a hit across India but traveled across the world. In fact, the Kannada language sequel K.G.F: Chapter 2 was an even bigger hit domestically.
Directed by Anup Bhandari, Vikrant Rona also stars Jacqueline Fernandez, Nirup Bhandari, and Neetha Ashok. You can watch the original Kannada language trailer here. Trailers in Hindi, English, Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu have also been released. The film itself will additionally get an Arabic, German, Russian and Mandarin release as well. Vikrant Rona is due out theatrically on July 28.