Salaar Ceasefire bookings in Bengaluru – where are the Kannada shows?

As promised, Hombale Films opened bookings of its next production, Salaar Ceasefire in Bengaluru at a select few movie halls in the city. While the response to these shows is off to a phenomenal start with all of the 5 am early morning shows sold out already and the rest filling fast, what has irked a section of audiences is that none of the shows so far are for the Kannada dubbed version of the film. Considering that Hombale Films is a Bengaluru-based production house run by Kannadigas, the expectation is that a fair number of shows will be allocated to the Kannada version, which has Vasishta N Simha ‘s voice for Prabhas, while Prithviraj has dubbed for himself.

There will, no doubt, be Kannada shows, but in all likelihood, the lion’s share will go to the Telugu original. As of now, netizens are less than pleased that there no Kannada shows. “In Bengaluru..why only Telugu language available for tickets...Is Bengaluru in Telugu states or Karnataka...,” wrote Prajwal VS, while Vinod also tweeted about there being no Kannada shows for#Salaar in Bengaluru in the initial list. “Why are they doing this again and again?? This movie has excellent buzz among Kannadigas and would definitely do great business in Kannada. Stop dumping Telugu in Kannada Nadu,” he added.

Netizens also noticed that bookings for Salaar have opened in Kerala too, but with the Malayalam version only, which added to the displeasure felt towards Hombale Films. “Kerala dalli maatra Malayalam version but karnataka dalli Telugu version, kannada version bidro,” wrote Shivaraj. The debate about Kannada dubbing has been a long-standing issue. Every time a major release from another industry comes to Karnataka, the bulk of the shows/screens are allotted to the original language. Every time, there is a call for more Kannada shows/screens, but even the few that do open do not attract enough footfalls. So far, Adipurush in Kannada has done decent business, while not even one-tenth of Jailer’s Karnataka box office came from the Kannada dubbed version.

In the past, KVN Productions, which distributed RRR in Karnataka, had pointed out that even when there is a Kannada version available, exhibitors refrain from taking it, citing a lack of patronage from viewers. The response to these films in their original version is also proof that audiences prefer that over a dubbed version.