A whopping 9 new Kannada releases to hit screens on March 4

It would be an understatement to say that it’s raining Kannada films in theatres. This week, as many as nine movies - Yellow Board, Sold, Kanneri, Mysuru, Aghora, Bettada Dari, Lisa, Smashanti, Moksha - are slated to release, joining films like Love Mocktail 2, Ek Love Ya, Old Monk, Bytwo Love, which came out earlier. For several years now, the Kannada industry has been plagued with a problem of too many films and too few screens. The problem has also been that Kannada films not only compete among themselves, but also with films from other industries.

In Bengaluru, for instance, films in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, take up quite a few halls week-on-week and the bigger the ‘other-language-release’ the less screens available for Kannada films. March 4, of course, is The Batman week. The Robert Pattinson-led film is releasing in English, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. There’s also Amitabh Bachchan’s Jhund, Dulquer Salmaan’s Hey Sinamika and Tovino Thomas’ Naradan in the fray, along with biggies from weeks gone by, like Bheemla Nayak, Gangubhai Kathiawadi, Valimai, etc.

The abundance of films, of course, is not a new phenomenon. In the years prior to the pandemic, Sandalwood was clocking anywhere between 175-240 releases in a year, averaging about four a week. Just prior to the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, as many as 40 Kannada films released in February of that year. Back then, filmmaker KM Chaitanya, who’s Aadyaa was up for release, had taken to social media, writing, “Here's what has happened to Kannada cinema. We should celebrate it instead of regretting. In the last few weeks, a whole bunch of good films are in the theater, struggling for space. You have 'Love Mocktail', 'Dia,' 'Malgudi Days', 'Gentleman' and many more. All good films, waiting for an audience. This Friday my film 'Aadyaa' is releasing with 'Popcorn Monkey Tiger' 'Shivaji Surathkal' and a bunch of other films. Some have promoted themselves well, some have fallen short. But all of us have done it because we love cinema. It is up to the audience to make us all win. It is possible. Just go watch our films in the theater. Don't wait for it to come on TV or digital platforms. Filmmakers can't make a film work. Audience can."

But how can audiences make these new Kannada films work when each of them has only the one odd show at limited screens? There’s also the question as to which one to watch when there is so much choice. These limited releases also mean that some of them may not be able to retain halls and drum up some word-of-mouth publicity in time for the next change. In the absence of regulations or an authoritative voice/figure to bring in some semblance of order, the teams of relatively smaller films will make a beeline for the available screens, before the onslaught of the next big-ticket release.

The reasons cited for this deluge of releases include the fact that a majority of film teams are led/backed by producers and investors with no film knowledge or strategic planning capability. With several big-ticket releases across languages, including James, KGF: Chapter 2 and Vikrant Rona, expected, others are forced to release in any open window. More importantly, a theatrical release, however limited, ensures better dubbing, satellite and digital rights.

So, which film are you watching this week?