Actor-director Rishabh Shetty's Kantara is making records at the box office. (Photo: Instagram/Rishabhshettyfilms)Director and actor Rishab Shetty’s recent release Kantara has shown the power of genuine word-of-mouth. The film is not only getting great footfall but also earned more in Karnataka than director Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan 1 and Chiranjeevi-starrer GodFather.
The film, which stars Rishab in the leading role as well, tells the story of a demigod called Bhoota, who trades forest land to the tribe’s people in 1870 in exchange of happiness. However, when the king’s son grows older, he demands to get the land back and dies. Kantara released alongside Ponniyin Selvan 1 on September 30 and has been competing for showtimes across Karnataka.
The Kannada film has now been dubbed in other languages and will soon be released across India. On October 11, Kantara surpassed PS1 and GodFather’s collection in Karnataka, reported Hindustan Times. While PS-1 made Rs Rs 4 crore in all languages and The GodFather made Rs 2 crore, Kantara went ahead to make Rs 5 crore.
Quoting trade analyst Trinath, the report said, “In 11 days since its release, the film grossed approximately ₹58 cr in Karnataka. In the limited number of theatres it released in other states, most of the shows are going housefull and theatre owners are slowly adding more shows. With the film ready for its dubbed release in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu, it’s set for a huge box office onslaught.”
He added, “PS 1 had a grand release in Karnataka with over 600 shows in its opening weekend. Despite the film doing extremely well in the state, it didn’t affect the prospects of Kantara at the box-office which made a solid impact with its content. The folklore element in Kantara was one of the major crowd-pulling highlights.”
Kantara’s Hindi dubbed version will release on October 14, whereas the Telugu version will release on October 15. The film’s Tamil and Malalayam versions will also be released soon.