Kaatera producer Rockline Venkatesh on fake collection reports: Have directed IT and ED to those who made claims

Kaatera, which released at the end of December last year, is, undoubtedly a box office success. While the team has not made an official announcement about its overall collections, unofficial trackers and fan groups of lead actor Darshan Thoogudeepa began publishing figures within days of its release. Very early on, producer Rockline Venkatesh had rubbished claims of the film having made record collections, but there was no stopping these reports from coming up every 2-3 days.

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Earlier today, on the occasion of the 50-day celebration of Kaatera at Prasanna theatre in Bengaluru, Venkatesh spoke about the collections of the film. Yet again, he refrained from disclosing the actual figure, but he said that ever since reports of the film having broken into the Rs 200 crore club emerged, he got as many as 4 notices from the IT and enforcement departments (ED) to provide statements of the same.

On his part, Venkatesh says that he shared the details – either contacts or article links – of those who had published information about Kaatera’s box office collections and urged the ED to ask them to prove the claims they have made. The actual figures and collection statements as received by him have been shared with the departments concerned, he added. Incidentally, some members of Kaatera's core team had shared these fan made posters claiming Rs 200 crore collections.

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Meanwhile, Kaatera, despite its good theatrical run, dropped on OTT within 45 days of its release. The satellite and digital rights had been picked up by Zee Network and the film came on Zee5 Kannada on February 9. According to the streamer, Kaatera was a runaway hit there too, notching up 100 million streaming minutes within 5 days.

Kaatera, written by Jadesha K Hampi and director Tharun Kishore Sudhir, was a film centred on the land reform bill of the 70s that mandated that he who tills the land owns it. This had caused a major dispute between farmers and landlords, which formed the backdrop of the film. Darshan played the title character, a blacksmith who eventually wields the weapons he forges to protect the people from his land and fight against their oppression at the hands of wealthy and powerful people.