NEW DELHI: Madras Café, a film named after a South Indian destination soon after Chennai Express, is to be released on 23 August.

The film has been produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, JA Entertainment and Rising Sun Films, and directed by the award-winning Shoojit Sircar.

The trailer of the political espionage thriller was launched in the presence of the director, the film‘s lead John Abraham and co-star Nargis Fakhri amidst a complete army set-up with ammunition, maps, sandbags and the works.

Talking about the film, director Sircar said: "Madras Cafe is an intense political spy thriller. Since it is the first time I am tackling the subject, over three years of research went into it -It has been my most challenging film this far. Though the film is fictional, it has several references from real episodes.

Producer and actor John Abraham said, "Madras Café has been my dream project and we‘ve been in discussions for years over the subject - We‘ve worked extremely hard on the film and are satisfied with the outcome - What I can assure you is audiences will be talking about the film even after they‘ve stepped out of the theatre... it is a high-on-content, thought provoking film"