Riteish Deshmukh signs on for RAPO23, Ram Pothineni’s first film as director

Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh will make his Telugu debut in RAPO23, the film that marks Ram Pothineni’s first outing as a director. Rapo Cinematics, the production banner behind the project, announced his arrival on Monday, 19 October, in a post on its X account that greeted the actor on the eve of Dussehra.

Riteish has joined the new schedule of the shoot now under way in Hyderabad. A short video shared by the team shows him arriving at the location and being received by Ram.

Riteish Deshmukh’s role kept under wraps

The makers have not spelt out who Riteish plays. The production house’s post spoke only of a “very exciting role”. No character name or first look has been released.

Ram Pothineni has written the film and is directing it while also playing the lead. Krishna Pothineni is producing under the Rapo Cinematics banner. Earlier updates from the unit named action director Peter Hein, who is designing the stunt sequences, and A.S. Prakash, who is handling production design, among the technical crew.

The makers have billed the project as a psychological action thriller with a neo-noir setting. The unit shot a schedule in Puducherry in August; the current leg of filming is in Hyderabad.

A familiar name for Telugu audiences

Riteish has worked largely in Hindi and Marathi cinema, as an actor and also as a director and producer in Marathi. While this is his first Telugu film, the family name is not new to Telugu viewers: his wife, Genelia Deshmukh, starred in several Telugu films in the 2000s, including Bommarillu and Ready. In Ready (2008), her co-star was Ram Pothineni himself.

Casting actors from Hindi cinema in key roles has become a regular feature of larger Telugu productions, and Riteish’s entry adds RAPO23 to that list. His addition comes at a point when the film is still some way from release.

What comes next

The makers have not announced a final title, the rest of the cast or a release date, and have said nothing yet about when audiences will see Riteish’s look in the film. The film is being made in Telugu; the producers have not said whether it will also be released in other languages.

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