Rocking Star Yash on the Rishab Shetty blockbuster: "I see Kantara as my own film"

Yash is quite easily one of the biggest actors in the business today and his fame transcends cultural and linguistic boundaries. As Rocky Bhai in the two KGF films, the 36-year-old movie star rose to unprecedented prominence across the country: so much so that his next film has become a national concern, of sorts, with the entire nation waiting with bated breath for the announcement.

Yash was one of the main guests or speakers at the India Today Conclave in Mumbai wherein he spoke at length about his success and the rise of the Kannada Film Industry over the past year or two. And in this vein, it was inevitable that Kantara came up during the discussion to enunciate Kannada Cinema's growth. 

"This seems to be the year of Kannada film," said host Rajdeep Sardesai before going on to question Yash about the surge of the industry in 2022. "Because as we speak, Kantara, your new film... not your film but a Kannada film is making waves. High praise, and again a low-budget film that's making a lot of money. What is it in Bengaluru's air? It seems like 'Namma Karnataka' is the buzzword at the moment," he would add read.

Yash, in his quintessential candour, responds, "Sir, it (Kantara) is also my film. You said it's not my film but it is my film also. What I believe from my industry's perspective is that we needed that attitude shift. You know people have the talent, the confidence and all of that is fine but the moment you step out and people start judging you and speak about your industry in a certain manner, it takes a lot of effort to break that perception. That [the effort] was important. Back home, when I was in the early stages of my career, I noticed that everyone started off with a negative perception - they said 'ours is a small industry, we have a lot of limitations, we can't compete with the rest of the industries because their budgets are high, they have bigger markets. And a lot of people would say that the Kannada Film Industry could never make it."

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When Rocking Star Yash wished for ‘national level’ success for Kantara star Rishab Shetty 

"A matter of taking those few steps"

In the same breath, the KGF 2 actor spoke about the self-belief that the Kannada Film Industry lacked a few years ago and how, mounting Kannada film at the highest level, seemed implausible to even the biggest of producers. But things changed soon after, he says, because of they started to believe.

"I had a problem with that because no industry is big or small, it's about what we do in that industry. We can create good things and if it becomes big, the whole perception changes and people refer to the Kannada Industry by saying 'Kannada Industry is rocking, it has changed. I think it's about taking those few steps and everyone in the Kannada Film Industry is going with the attitude saying that they can do it and showcase their talents at the national level. For me, the main agenda was to come out and position our industry in such ways. I still remember when we began promoting KGF and we wanted to venture out of Karnataka, not many people in my team believed it. They were all very confident, and passionate, and wanted to make it as a big Kannada film. But when we went out to make it a pan-India film, everybody had inhibitions, they lacked confidence. But what you need to do is go out and just try. I believe that the audiences are not biased and if they like a film, it can become the biggest grosser," he added.