Banaras: Zaid Khan says he did not expect Kantara to run for more than two weeks

Banaras, the kaunchpad of Zaid Khan, the son of MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan, released in theatres today. When the film’s November 4 release date was announced, there were other films lined up for later in the month, but nothing much before it, or so the team thought. Closer to the release date, though, it was then announced that the late Puneeth Rajkumar’s Gandhada Gudi would have an October 28 theatrical outing. This, along with Kantara’s outstanding and continuing box office run made November 4 look like an odd choice.

But when asked about going ahead with the release plan, Zaid said, “When we announced our release date, there were a few films planned for later in November. At that point, Kantara was to release on September 30 and we thought that even if it did well, it would probably be in theatres for two weeks, at the most. We did not think that it would go well into a sixth week and be eyeing a longer run. Also, back then, Gandhada Gudi had not been announced. When the docu-feature was announced to be an October 28 release, we realized it would impact us, but we could not change our date at that point, as everything had been fixed. But that apart, we are also quite confident about the confident that we are bringing to theatres and that we would be able to sustain at the box office beside these two films,” said Zaid.

Banaras, directed by Jayathirtha, pairs Zaid with Sonal Monteiro. Interestingly, Zaid’s debut with a Jayathirtha directorial was facilitated by Rishab Shetty, who had asked the youngster to meet the filmmaker. The film also stars Sujay Shastry and Achyuth Kumar in pivotal roles. It has music by B Ajaneesh Loknath and cinematography by Advaitha Gurumurthy. The film’s satellite and digital rights have been scooped up by Zee Network.