Kantara: Rishab Shetty’s blockbuster set to eclipse KGF-1’s Karnataka box office record

If the current trend continues, the film will surpass the late Puneeth Rajkumar’s James also.

A still from the trailer of Kantara

Rishab Shetty has, quite literally, hit jackpot with his latest film, Kantara. The Kannada film, which released in theatres across the globe on September 30, has taken the box office by storm in pretty much all these regions. Industry insiders say that that the response to the film in the first 10 days has been better than even KGF: Chapter 1, Roberrt, or Vikrant Rona, but the box office collections are not reflecting this because Kantara did not have hiked ticket rates. Whatever record collections it is receiving has been from increased footfalls, with pretty much every show still going houseful.

Officially, Hombale Films has not divulged the box office collections of Kantara yet, but insiders who have been tracking the trade say that it steadily inching closer to the Rs 100 crore in the domestic market alone. There are reports that it is already in the 100-crore club with its Karnataka region collections, and that it will soon surpass both KGF: Chapter 1 and James in the local market. KGF 1 apparently made between Rs 135-Rs 150 crore locally in its lifetime. Kantara, after less than two weeks at the box office, is around the Rs 100 crore mark. If it maintains the current momentum, the film will cross Roberrt, James and KGF1. Trade experts say that the point to note here is that Kantara has only had a Kannada language release so far, while all the other industry hits were pan-India outings. So, for a Kannada film, Kantara’s achievements are beyond phenomenal, they reckon.

Kantara is already the highest grossing Kannada film in the north India market, as well as in the USA. And now, with the Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam versions slated to release starting tomorrow and going on for the next few days, it remains to be seen what other records the ‘divine’ blockbuster will eclipse.

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