Director Ananjay Raghuraj: 'Now is a great time for Bhojpuri films because of OTT'

Mumbai, June 2

Director Ananjay Raghuraj, who is gearing up for the release of his romantic-action film 'Khiladi' starring Pradeep Pandey 'Chintu' popularly known as Pandey ji ka beta and Sahar Afsa in lead roles, feels that it is a great time for Bhojpuri films because of the reach of OTT.

The director told IANS: "I hail from Motihari, Bihar, which is hardcore Bhojpuri-speaking, so I understand the pulse of the audience and their taste in Bhojpuri movies. The story has been written by Veeru Thakur ji who has written many successful Bhojpuri movies and after hearing it, I was convinced that I wanted to make this film."

The film follows the story of Rahul who belongs to a very poor family struggling to meet ends. Debt-ridden Rahul decides to go to London to earn money so that he can pay off all his debt because if he does not repay the loan, he will have to marry Surya's daughter who is the Bahubali (Goon) of the village. In London, Rahul meets an Indian girl Pratiksha at a party.

He further mentioned: "I feel, right now is a great time for Bhojpuri movies since Jio Studios has entered this space and a platform like Jio Cinema is making it available for the audience. Earlier we would release films on Youtube and the reach of television is limited. The films that we were not able to reach the audience earlier, now we are able to do that. Not just that, as makers we now have the courage to make more quality Bhojpuri films."

Produced by Jyoti Deshpande and Abhay Sinha, 'Khiladi' will be available to stream Jio Cinema from June 4.