Vijay Raghavendra’s thriller Case of Kondana registers streaming milestone
Directed by Devi Prasad Shetty, who made Seetharam Benoy: Case No 18 with Vijay Raghavendra earlier, Case of Kondana had the actor in cop mode again
Apr 20, 2024
Vijay Raghavendra in a still from the film
When Case of Kondana released in theatres, it did not have much buzz going for it initially. Vijay Raghavendra’s track record has been far from stellar and the team’s earlier film, Seetharam Benoy: Case No 18 was average at best. Case of Kondana did not inspire much confidence, but then, after the initial media reviews began coming out, that changed. Case of Kondana, as someone said, came out of syllabus.
The film’s theatrical business began picking up thereafter, but amid the plethora of new releases every week, sustaining this was hard for them. Nevertheless, they eventually managed to find a streaming partner in Amazon Prime Video, where, the film has been doing phenomenally well. Having been picked up for a pay-per-view deal, every minute Case of Kondana is streamed became crucial for them and so far, in just over three weeks since it dropped on the platform, it has registered 4 crore streaming minutes, which is quite a commendable feat.
Director Devi Prasad Shetty had Vijay Raghavendra in cop mode yet again, but instead of having him as a ‘do-no-evil’ macho police officer, he presented him as a slightly flawed character. Here he was, as an assistant Sub Inspector, Wilson, in a new posting that he got by greasing the pockets of superior officers. When Wilson then commits a crime, his instinctive reaction is to cover it up, but it leads to further complications. The film also had Bhavana Menon in a pivotal role.
Incidentally, Case of Kondana was not the film that Devi Prasad wanted to do with Vijay Raghavendra as the follow up to Seetharam Benoy. However, he had budget limitations, which would not have worked for the subject he had in mind and that is how he decided to do Case of Kondana instead. The filmmaker says that he knew he had to do a vastly different film from Seetharam Benoy to get audiences invested in it and given its OTT track record, it appears that this gamble worked for.
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