He is Srimannarayana) is a 2019 Indian Kannada-language western fantasy adventure comedy film[a][4][5] directed and edited by Sachin B. Ravi in his directorial debut.

Described by Shetty as "Southern Odd Fiction",[9] the film follows a corrupt police officer who takes on a bandit chief in order to recover a missing treasure in the 1980s.

[10] The film's script was written by Rakshit Shetty, Chandrajith Belliappa, Anirudh Kodgi, Abhijith Mahesh, Nagarjuna Sharma, and Abhilash.

[15] During the 1980s in the western lawless city of Amaravati, Karnataka, the ruthless bandit king Ramarama of the Abhira kingdom kills a theater troupe for stealing a government treasure before he can.

Jayaram declares himself king but that he won't sit on the throne till they find their rightful treasure, but they fail to even fifteen years later.

He also finds out from men of the earlier theater troupe that they're a religious group who believe in the prophecy of savior called Sri Hari.

Lakshmi confronts Narayana and warns him that posing as Sri Hari is dangerous, and that a faction of the troupe don't believe the prophecy.

The eagle from the previous night was supposed to choose Sudhakar but Narayana knocks him out to take his disguise, causing him to become Sri Hari instead.

Lakshmi keeps him for punishment but Narayana escapes when they leave and consults a few of the believers in the troupe, who tell him the map for the treasure exists but nowhere to be found.

The bandmaster manages to escape, but Narayana confronts him and finds out the troupe's traditional play reveals the treasure location.

He finds that the play tells the story of how the ocean was churned to create magical entities and one is symbolic of the treasure location.

Some of Tukaram's men meet with Narayana to search for the treasure, while others manage to abduct the entire troupe and pour gasoline on the fort to destroy it.

Narayana also finds a decoy chest with rocks, so Tukaram's men bury him alive, but Achyuthaana and other police manage to save him.

It was touted to be an action comedy film, whose pre production work was expected to take place in March 2017, and the shoot will kickstart in April 2017.

[19][20] In January 2018, Rakshit Shetty, Sachin and cinematographer Karm Chawla, writers Chandrajit Belliappa and Anirudh Kodgi, went on a recce across Hubli, Gulbarga, Vijayapura, Davanagere and Dharwad, to finalize the locations for a vintage setting based for the script.

"[21] The team eventually finalized Basavakalyan, after Rakshit Shetty stated, "In Basavakalyana we found the perfect setting for the film.

One schedule required the team to shoot in the wild, but they didn't want to disturb wildlife and nature, they created a set resembling a huge forest.

Followed by the success of KGF franchise,[35] the makers prompoted Avane Srimannarayana, to release as a pan-Indian film in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi languages.

[47] The Telugu dubbed version was distributed by film producer Dil Raju and released on 1 January 2020, coinciding with the New Year's Day.

[57][58] Ahead of the film's release, the makers came up with a quirky promotional activity, asking fans to decode the numbers featured in the trailer, to form a code to crack it; the team also announced to provide ₹2 lakh (US$2,300) for the lucky winner in the contest.

[61] Rakshit Shetty and team, kickstarted the promotional tour of the film in major metro cities, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi.

[62][63] The digital rights of the film were sold to Amazon Prime Video,[64][65] and was made available to stream on 7 February 2020 with runtime of 186 minutes.

[citation needed] Writing for the News18, Sharth Sharma Kalagaru gave 4 out of 5 stars, stating "Srimannarayana (Rakshit Shetty) is witty and charming.

"[70] Aravind Shwetha of The News Minute gave 4 out of 5 stars stating "Avane Srimannarayana fantasy thriller is a visual treat and scores high on performances.

Rakshit Shetty as the smart, witty, bad cop is good to watch, and we get to a see a different version of the actor in Shanvi Srivastava.

Debut director Sachin Ravi has fulfilled the promise of delivering a sure-fire hit, and Ajneesh Loknath’s background music is the film’s biggest plus.

"[71] The Indian Express editor-in-chief Manoj Kumar R, gave 3.5 out of 5 stars stating "In spite of its flaws, Avane Srimannarayana is an important Kannada film.

"[74] A. Sharadhaa assigned a score of 3.5 out of 5, in her review for Cinema Express and stated: "The universal theme of the movie is sure to make it appeal to audiences across the country.

"[76] Janani K. of India Today gave a mixed review stating "Avane Srimannarayana has a brilliant interval block and the story picks up momentum only after that.

[86] The New Indian Express reported that a "high-budget" spin-off film for the character will be produced by H. K. Prakash and written by Shetty and the writers of Avane Srimannarayana.