Shivarajkumar: Pen Studios picked up Ghost after seeing the film; no one goes by a showreel after Kabzaa

In the Kannada film industry, there’s been a lot of hushed discussion about how R Chandru’s Kabzaa destroyed whatever goodwill Sandalwood had got across the country in recent times. The filmmaker used an impressive-looking showreel, with the best scenes from the film, to convince buyers, including distributors and digital partners to take his film and recovered his costs even before it released in theatres. It is only when Kabzaa released that everyone released how misleading the showreel actually was – the film was a box office disaster and was widely panned, and as an after effect, mainstream OTT platforms stopped buying Kannada films prior to a theatrical release. All of this, of course, has remained industry talk, with no one really addressing it openly.

Filmmakers weigh in on the ‘OTT platforms don’t buy Kannada films’ debate sparked by Ramya 

Until now, that is, when Century Star Shivarajkumar spoke about the effect Kabzaa had on the industry as a whole. Speaking to Kadakk Cinema about Pen Studios offering to distribute Ghost in the north Indian market, which is a first for the banner, Shivarajkumar explained that the deal happened only after they’d seen the entire film and realized that there is merit in it to be projected on a big scale in the Hindi version. “To be honest, after Kabzaa, there was a setback for everyone in the Kannada industry,” he said, explaining that unlike Jailer, where his 8-10 minute cameo had a good impact and yet did not become the central theme of the film, in Kabzaa, the focus of his 1-2 minute role became the focus. This, said the actor, was not right and added that while he respects Chandru as a filmmaker, the latter should not have misled audiences.

Kabzaa: Shivarajkumar’s character to have more prominence in part 2 

In fact, when Chandru approached Shivarajkumar for the role, he told the actor a basic line that the Century Star thought seemed thrilling. It is only later that he realized that the film was ended with the promise of Shivarajkumar’s character taking the narrative forward. What was worse, he said is that for a minor cameo, Chandru had erected massive cut-outs of the actor, giving audiences the impression that he plays a major part in the film after all and raised expectations. The Century Star signed off saying that Chandru should have shown more respect to his business partners who invested on his film. 

Kabzaa: I didn’t see the showreel; Chandru showed me to everyone - the Kiccha Sudeep roast of R Chandru