Bangalore with playback singer Shreya Ghoshal, who sang five songs in the film, attending as chief guest. Release and reception The satellite rights of the film were bought by Zee Kannada in mid-2014. It was given the "U/A" (Parental Guidance) certificate by the Regional Censor Board. The makers were asked to cut two scenes from the film and 11 dialogues were muted. It was set for a late-2014 release, but got delayed in its post-productions stages. Prior to its release, news reports emerged that the film was being dubbed in eight languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Bhojpuri, Bengali and Marathi. It released theatrically on 30 January 2015. Critical reception Upon theatrical release, the film opened to mixed reviews from critics. G. S. Kumar of The Times of India rated the film 3.5/5 and wrote, "The director has done a good job of a neat script" and added, "While the first half keeps you hooked, with a pacy narrative, the second half lags as the story stretches unnecessarily." On the acting performances he wrote, "Atul Kulkarni, Makarand Deshpande, Ravishankar, Achyuth Kumar gel well with their characters" and that for Pooja Gandhi "a dubbing artiste would have done a better job of her voice." He concluded writing, "While music by Mano Murthy is in tune with the storyline, KS Chandrasekhar's cinematography scores high." S. Viswanath of Deccan Herald rated the film 3/5 and wrote, "Abhinetri is also not superlative cinema. Too theatrical and stretched, Abhinetri would have turned true cinema with crisper editing and more polished performances. Atul Kulkarni is an exception, and he shows his class and command." He added that Gandhi was supported well by other actors but for Makarand Deshpande who he felt was miscast as a "bucktoothed, lascivious film producer." Shyam Prasad S. of Bangalore Mirror reviewed the film rating it two out of five, and called it "A tale of lost opportunities". He felt the film fails "by not making it clear to every potential audience which character in the film was which in real life". He added that "the good thing about the film are its colours." He concluded praising the roles of cinematography "in presenting the old era in digital shades, and the music." Muralidhara Khajane of The Hindu called the film "an attempted biopic" of Kalpana and wrote, "While one has to appreciate the efforts put in by Pooja Gandhi, the director could