Nikhil Gowda back to cinema as Rider

Bengaluru: Despite hailing from the biggest political family in Karnataka, Nikhil Gowda popularly known as Nikhil Kumarswamy resisted being part of the political crowd. After getting failed for his political entry, Nikhil Kumaraswamy's film career takes another step with a film with the popular audio company Lahari by announcing a new project titled 'Rider' on Friday, the makers released the first-look motion poster of the film.

According to sources close to the team, Rider will be a sports drama with an interesting narrative. The film went on floors before the COVID-19 pandemic, and was halted due to the lockdown. The team has nearly 32 days of shoot left, with shooting expected to resume soon. The film has Kashmira Pardeshi playing the female lead.

'Rider' is been directed by Tollywood popular director Vijay Kumar Konda, who has made films like Okka Laila Kosam and Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinda. The film will be made in Kannada, Telugu and Hindi.

The film will mark the entry of Chandra Kumar, the son of Manohar Naidu, the chief of Lahari Audio as producer. It was his idea of producing films through Lahari. Chandru and Nikhil Kumaraswamy are long-time friends and after Nikhil made his acting debut, Chandru started planning a film with him. Lahari Audio had ventured into film production in the 1990s with films like Mahakshatriya and Ganeshana Galate. They stuck to music after that. This new film will be their return to film production after 25 years.

The 'Rider' has Shreesha M Kudavalli as cinematography and Ravi Verma will be directing the action sequence. Arjun Janya has been roped in to compose the music, which also has Dattana, Achyutha Kumar, Rajesh Nataranga, Shobaraj, Chikanna, Shivaraj KR Pete, Niharika, Sampada Hulivana, Anusha in other important roles.

The team claims that 'Rider' motion poster seems to have caught the attention of the audience has it has started a buzz and recorded 1 million views in few hours.

Nikhil had taken a short break from his film career and contested in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, from the Mandya parliamentary constituency. He lost to Sumalatha Ambareesh,who contested as an independent candidate. Nikhil recently married Revathi, the grand-niece of former state Housing Minister, M Krishnappa.