The South Indian film industry has been on a rise for the last few years. The release of the Magnum Opus ‘Baahubali’ opened the doors for the conversation surrounding the concept of PAN India movies. The fact that a Telugu film created a ruckus at the box office was a novelty in 2015.
The Tamil film Industry had always been high on content and mass value. The celebration of cinema in the Tamil State and the tremendous following helped the fever become contagious. The Malayalam movie industry followed a different route. Movies coming out from the state of Kerala are always known for being high on content value. This relatively small movie industry found a huge global audience when the world turned to OTT platforms, during the pandemic.
The Kannada film industry had always been functioning in the backdrop. The state of Karnataka did offer an unparalleled league of talents to the development of the country’s cinematic fabric, but as an industry, it got its due recognition rather late.
The overwhelmingly positive reaction to a small film ‘Kantara’ based on the regional culture of coastal Karnataka has sent shock waves all across the country. A movie based on a controlled budget of 16 crores, has already earned more than 55 crores in the state of Karnataka two weeks after its release.
Kannada movies were known to the rest of the country for the social values they carried. The likes of Girish Karnad, Anant Nag, and Puttanna Kanagal brought several woes of the general masses to the forefront. The recent history of the film industry has shown its commercial might. Starting from Upendra to the likes of Kiccha Sudeep, Puneeth Rajkumar, and Yash enamored the masses with their styles and matched the quotient of the other film industries from the same region.
The KGF series not only earned big bucks for the industry as a whole but also put it on a global stage. The thunderous reactions to the second part of the series have potentially changed the fate of commercial Kannada cinema.
Kantara’s success story is slightly more intriguing. The Shetty trio of Rakshit Shetty, Rishabh Shetty, and Raj Shetty have brought some of the most interesting stories from the heartlands of the state to the forefront. Many of their movies had a commercial palette but the regional connection was always kept intact. The concert of ‘Bhoota’ is extremely region-centric for coastal Karnataka. A movie of such a niche background made it big in other languages, solely because of the style of presentation of the topic. The success of Kantara is a perfect example of the path that the Kannada film industry is on, at the moment. The marriage of commercial considerations, while laying the foundations of the plot is a development any film industry would wish for.
Acclaim and collection
From the widest appreciation from critics like Anupama Chopra and Taran Adarsh also leaving stars like Sudeep, Nani, and Dhanush awestruck, the film has crossed all limits of appreciation.
Kantara has surpassed to become no.1 choice of filmgoers surpassing the collections of PS-1 and even Godfather.
The audience is just mind-blown, not the Kannada audience, but the Hindi one.
#Kantara review: 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
can't get over the hangover of movie especially last 30min 🔥
Visually spectacular, Stunning perfomance & direction from @shetty_rishab 👌🏻1000 times better than brahmastra. Best from Kannada industry. BLOCKBUSTER💯#KantaraHindi – MUST WATCH!!!
— Shanavi (@ShinyGirl111) October 14, 2022
I have watched #KantaraHindi and the dubbing was great and #sachingole was did a fabulous job to voiceover for @shetty_rishab and others starcast dubbing was good overall #KantaraHindi is a great movie ⭐⭐⭐⭐🌟
— NAKUL CHAVAN (@NakulChavan13) October 13, 2022
As per the latest standing of IMDB, with 13,000 votes, Kantara has scored 9.6 out of 10. The latest action-drama has beat some of the biggest blockbusters in the database. When it comes to comparison, Rakshit Shetty’s 777 Charlie scored 9.0, Kamal Haasan’s Vikram 8.4, Yash’s KGF Chapter 2 scored 8.4, and RRR 8 on IMDB.
Moreover, after KGF 2 (Rs. 171.50 crores) and RRR (Rs. 86 crores), Kantara is now the third-highest-grossing movie of the year in Karnataka; it will pass the latter in either the third week or fourth weekend. The current state of the movie makes a target of at least Rs. 100 crores look extremely realistic.
Did you watch the film yet?
