Rishab Shetty: Kantara is a regular story that is elevated by the inclusion of folklore

The filmmaker made the observation during his promotional tour in Mumbai.

Rishab Shetty in a still from the film

Kantara is the biggest hit in actor-director Rishab Shetty’s character. The film, which released on September 30, is now also available in other languages like Hindi and Telugu, with Tamil and Malayalam to follow shortly. In the immediate aftermath of the warm welcome that the Kannada film got, Rishab, who had not travelled across the state to promote it, had major plans to tour all of Karnataka.

But soon enough, his travel itinerary changed. His film was going pan-India after all in different languages, following the demand for dubbed versions. In the last week, Rishab has been hopping between Hyderabd, Mumbai and Chennai, with an expected pitstop in Kochi too, to promote the film. In Mumbai, Rishab spoke to Film Companion about his film, during which he made an interesting observation about Kantara.

“Kantara is a regular story. There are two men, there’s a fight between them and in the end, there’s a villain too. So, in that sense, it is a regular story. The question then, is, what is new about this? In trying to find something new to decorate this story with, I thought it would be good to use the culture and traditions of coastal Karnataka, as well as folklore from the region, which is being neglected in today’s day and age, which, in turn, would give the narrative a certain depth,” he said.

Kantara, produced by Hombale Films, has been running to packed houses for two weeks, a trend that continues unabated. This week, the Hindi, Telugu and Tamil versions are also out and positive reviews have been pouring in from those markets too. Malayalam and Tulu versions will be out soon. Industry experts say that Kantara has registered more footfalls than KGF: Chapter 2 in Karnataka.

Amazon Prime Video has bought the digital rights of the film, and while there are reports that it may start streaming as early as November 4, Kantara’s box office success may push that date ahead, or the streamer may choose to bring it onboard as a rental option only for a while.

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