‘Kantara’ makers announce prequel

Hombale Films, the makers of Kannada language hit Kantara, have announced a prequel to the movie. The film had made nearly Rs. 80 crore with its Hindi version alone, and also beat the Rs. 44 crore made by action film KGF- Chapter 1 in 2018. The latter was the first Kannada film to penetrate the Hindi-speaking market.

Kantara is an action thriller written and directed by Rishab Shetty, and produced by Vijay Kiragandur, under Hombale Films, best known for the KGF franchise. It stars Shetty in the lead role along with Sapthami Gowda and Kishore.

After the huge success of Hindi dubs of Telugu and Tamil films such as RRR, Pushpa: The Rise- Part One and Rajinikanth’s 2.0, Kannada cinema is eyeing the north Indian market, too. Though action drama KGF: Chapter 2 is among the highest grossers of all time, making Rs. 434.70 crore on its release last April, two other relatively smaller films—777 Charlie and Vikrant Rona -- have also managed impressive numbers in Hindi recently. Trade experts said the Kannada industry is making a conscious effort to create larger-than-life films rather than region-specific narratives and stars like Yash and Kiccha Sudeep are also finding recognition in north India.

There are two aspects to the Kannada industry widening its horizons, trade experts say. The first being that audiences have been exposed to a lot more information and content with the rapid growth of OTT platforms and multiplexes are cashing in on the same and utilizing their full potential to schedule different films as per customer needs and wants. Secondly, films like KGF 2 and Vikrant Rona are high on mass appeal and are being dubbed in multiple languages to be able to reach a larger audience, the ultimate aim being to collect better at the box office and attain higher footfalls.