Mayabazar 2016

The story is set in the urbane setting of a city, mostly Bangalore, a few months before the demonetisation of 2016, and tells the story of three men from different walks of life cope with the trials and tribulations of life before and after the note ban. Kubera (Raj B. Shetty) is a small time crook is in trouble with the law enforcement, and resorts to conning people to pay off some corrupt cops and live peacefully. Joseph (Achyuth Kumar) is an honest police officer who draws flak from everyone in the police department for not accepting bribes, however, his wife (Sudha Rani) is a staunch supporter of his virtuous ways. His strong stance to never stoop to corruption puts him in a quandary when his wife is diagnosed with cancer, and he begins to contemplate ways of raising money for her surgery.

Providence puts Joseph into a position of power, where he is able to spy upon people possessing black money right after demonetisation occurs. With his wife’s condition forcing his hand, Joseph concocts a plan to rob people of their ill-gotten gains, with Kubera posing as an income tax officer. On one such raid, the fake IT inspector notices a man hiding in a house (Raji, played by Vasishta N. Simha) who offers him a large sum of money in exchange for not apprehending him. However, Raji soon discovers that the IT officers are fake, and demands a cut from Joseph and Kubera after tailing them back to their hideout in exchange for his silence. Joseph is unhappy but reluctantly acquiesces to his demands.

It emerges that the money which Raji stole actually belonged to a highly ranked, violent cop (Prakash Raj) who is furious upon discovery of the theft and embarks upon a quest to bring the thieves to justice. After Joseph realises this, he contemplates stopping further raids, but is dissuaded from doing so by Kubera and Raji, who are greedy for more money. He agrees to plan and execute one final raid on Pataaki Pandu (Sadhu Kokila), a corrupt politician to raise the deficit amount for his wife’s surgery. However, the plan goes awry, and Raji barely escapes with his life. This causes him to develop cold feet and quit the gang, and Joseph too reneges on the plan. Joseph apologises to Ashok for stealing the money, who forgives him because of the dire circumstances which forced him to do so. The money for the surgery is raised through a trust fund, and Joseph’s conscience is relaxed, as the burden of having stolen money is released from his head. Kubera decides to go ahead with the plan again, and this time Kubera hits pay dirt by unearthing a huge stack of black money Paandu possessed. However, he gets arrested by Ashok before he can escape with the money. Ashok boasts to have robbed several people this way, which is recorded by Raji, who had actually volunteered to assist Kubera remotely. Ashok is forced to let Kubera and Raji go scot-free, and they use the stolen money to flee the country, and are shown relaxing on the beach in Bangkok, 280 days later.

• Raj B. Shetty as Kubera
• Vasishta Simha as Carpenter Raji
• Achyuth Kumar as Joseph, a Police Inspector
• Prakash Raj as ACP Ashok Rao
• Sudha Rani as Usha, Joseph's wife
• Chaithra Rao as Raaji's Girlfriend
• Sadhu Kokila as Pataki Paandu
• Honnavalli Krishna as Constable Achar
• Huccha Venkat a Salesman
• Rockline Sudhakar
• Puneeth Rajkumar in a Special Appearance "Loka Maya Bazaru" song[7][8]
• Shravan Aithal as Fake Income Tax officer

‘Mayabazar 2016’ is the second venture of PRK Productions.[9] Shooting began from 24 January 2018 in Sri Kanteerava Studio.

Film is the joint production of Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar and M Govindu who earlier made Doddmane Hudga starring Puneeth Rajakumar. Govindu liked the subject of debutant director Radhakrishna' story. Govindu went to seek the opinion of Puneeth Rajakumar. Puneeth Rajakumar expressed intention of jointly producing the film under his banner of PRK Productions. It was more than happy news for producer Govindu.[10] Costume designed by Upendra Shivu and Yogi G. Raj (Puneeth Rajkumar). Suresh Baganur has proved to be a great art director.

The official film trailer released on 17 February 2020 in 'PRK Audio' YouTube channel.[11]

The film was released on 28 February 2020 and distributed by productions parent company Sri Vajreshwari Combines. The satellite rights of the film was taken by Colors Kannada.[12] Film was released in USA on 6 March after successfully running in India.[13]

Movie released on online video platform Amazon Prime 3 April 2020.[14][15]

The film was remade in Tamil as Naanga Romba Busy by Badri and will star Prasanna, Shaam, Ashwin Kakumanu, Yogi Babu, and Shruti Marathe.[16][17]

• Mayabazar 2016 at IMDb