Darshan defends Kaatera's December 29, post Salaar and Dunki release date

“Why should we be afraid of any other film? Kaatera is a Kannada film and this is our land. To bring our film in our land, why should we be afraid of others, they should be the fearful ones?” This was Challenging Star Darshan’s statement about the choice of release date for his next, Kaatera. The film, directed by Tharun Kishore Sudhir, is coming to theatres on December 29, exactly one week after some of this year’s most anticipated movies, Salaar: Ceasefire, Dunki and Aquaman-2, are releasing. Generally, Kannada filmmakers refrain from a direct box-office clash with biggies from other languages, and choose a stand-alone date at least 2-3 weeks away from potential competition. Darshan, though, has taken the challenge head-on, for the second time in the year. His Kranti had released on Republic Day along with Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan, and that result was not Darshan’s favour.

Naturally, fans and industry trackers have had misgivings about the choice of date. But Darshan sounds immensely confident about the quality of the content and that Kannada audiences will never desert a good film. Kaatera, he believes, is that film, which he and the team have made for the people of Karnataka. Although not much is known about the subject of the film at the moment, it is, according to Darshan, about farmers and is based on a real incident that occurred sometime in the 70s. Tharun has also said that executing the difficult and sensitive subject of Kaatera was challenging and that he was worried at first if his script was way too out-of-the-box for a star like Darshan. More about the film will be revealed when the trailer releases on December 16.

Kaatera trailer: Director Tharun Sudhir promises a surprise on December 16 

The film, produced by Rockline Venkatesh, is veteran actress Malashree’s daughter Aradhanaa’s launchpad. The actress’s role in the film is said to be meaty, not just in terms of quality but the screen time as well. The film, which has music by V Harikrishna, also stars Kumar Govind, Shruthi, Avinash, Ravi Chetan and Biradar in pivotal roles.

Kaatera: Challenging Star Darshan on the film’s three ‘different’ fights