James Movie Details:
| Country | India |
| Language | Kannada |
| Genre | Action Comedy Drama |
| Release date | 17 March 2022 |
| Running time | 2hr 29min |
| Certificate | U/A |
| Starring | Puneeth Rajkumar |
| Directed by | Chethan Kumar |
| Written by | Chethan Kumar |
| Produced by | Kishore Pathikonda |
| Cinematography by | Swamy J. Gowda |
| Edited by | Deepu S. Kumar |
| Music by | Songs: Charan Raj Score: V. Harikrishna |
| Production Company | Kishore Productions |
James Movie Cast & Characters:
- Puneeth Rajkumar as Santhosh Kumar/James (Voice by Shiva Rajkumar)
- R. Sarathkumar as Joseph Antony
- Srikanth as Vijay Gayakwad
- Priya Anand as Nisha Gayakwad
- Anu Prabhakar as Vijay’s wife
- Madhusudhan Rao as Jayadev Gakaywad, Vijay’s father
- Mukesh Rishi as Rathanlal, a supporter of Joseph
- Adithya Menon as Prathap Aras, Vijay’s associate
- Rangayana Raghu as Rakesh Kumar Pirangi, Santhosh’s colleague
- Avinash as Santosh’s higher Army officer
- Sadhu Kokila as Santhosh’s assistant
- Chikkanna as Madan, chief editor of Janadani newspaper
- Tilak Shekar as Jagan, ATS officer
- Shine Shetty as Ekanth, IAS officer
- Gajapade Harsha as ACP Amar
- Sameeksha as Jessie, Ekanth’s fiancée
- Suchendra Prasad as Jessie’s father
- Padmaja Rao as Mary, Jessie’s mother
- John Kokken as John, Joseph’s brother
- Taarak Ponnappa as Peter, Joseph’s brother
- Yash Shetty as Robin, Joseph’s brother
- Ketan Karande a gang member of Joseph Antony’s mafia syndicate
- Vajrang Shetty as Prathap Aras’s son
- Mohan Juneja as a rich person in the hospital
- Girish as a fake rich person
- Prasanna Baagin as Rathanlal’s son
- Vajragiri as Rathanlal’s son
- Kavya Shastry as Jagan’s wife
- Hamsa as Amar’s wife
- Nayana Gowda as Madan’s wife
- Shivamani as Joseph’s associate
- Anil as Vijay Gaikwad’s associate
- Krishna Hebbale as a police officer
- K S Shreedhar as orphanage head
- Amit as Santhosh’s associate in the agency
- Baby Aradhya Chandra as Amar’s daughter
- Master Anoop as Jagan’s son
- Govindegowda as marriage broker
- Swapna as Dechamma
- Sillilalli Anand as the guy at the ashram
- All Ok as the rich kid at the bar
- Dattanna as Chowdhury (cameo)
- Shiva Rajkumar in a cameo appearance as Anandraj, a soldier
- Raghavendra Rajkumar in a cameo appearance as Santhosh’s orphanage head.
Storyline:
James also called Santhosh Kumar, works as a manager in a security company and finds himself up against the big bad guys.
James Movie Box Office Collection & Budget:
| Budget | ₹50–70 crore |
| Worldwide Collection | ₹151 crore |
About James Movie:
This is Puneeth’s posthumous appearance following his death on 29 October 2021.
The film marked the second collaboration between Puneeth, Priya, and Sarathkumar after Raajakumara (2017).
Before his demise, Puneeth had finished most of the shoot except for one song and voice dubbing. The movie team tried its best to retain Puneeth’s voice captured during the shoot but when it seemed difficult, Shiva Rajkumar, the eldest brother of Puneeth, was dubbed for his brother’s character in the Kannada version.
The integral portions of the film have been shot in Bengaluru.
The film is produced by Kishore Pathikonda under the banner Kishore Productions.
The first schedule of the shoot started on 19 January 2020 in Bengaluru. The second schedule of the film started from 14 October 2020 in Hampi.
A quick schedule was also wrapped in February 2021 in Kashmir featuring important action sequences of Puneeth Rajkumar. After returning from Kashmir, Puneeth became busy in the promotional activities of his other film, Yuvarathnaa which released on 1 April amidst the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The James team resumed shooting once again on 5 July at a brisk pace after the Government of Karnataka gave the nod to restart filming activities.
James was released in theatres on 17 March 2022 in Kannada alongside dubbed versions in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu. It released in 4000 screens on the first day including 400 single-screen theaters in Karnataka alone and 900 shows in multiplexes making it the biggest release at that time in Karnataka. The Telugu film RRR had postponed its release by one week due to the release of this film.
On 18 April 2022, Chethan Kumar announced that a Hyderabad-based team was able to recreate Puneeth’s voice using Shivrajkumar’s modulation and Puneeth’s voice samples from his previous films and hosting endeavors. Kumar announced that consequently James would be re-released in theaters with the new voice on 22 April 2022.
The film was released on SonyLIV on 14 April 2022 in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Hindi and the satellite rights of the Kannada version were sold to Star Suvarna.
It became a blockbuster at the box office and broke the record for the biggest opening day collections for any Kannada film by grossing around ₹28 crore to ₹32 crore on the first day. On the 4th day of its release, it also recorded the highest single-day footfalls for a Kannada movie.
The film grossed ₹100 crores within 4 days of release and became the second highest-grossing Kannada film at the time of release whilst also becoming the fastest Kannada film to gross ₹100 crores at the box office at that time only to be surpassed by K.G.F: Chapter 2 in less than a month. It was also the second Kannada film to gross ₹100 crores in Karnataka.
