Kantara box office: Rishab Shetty film outdoes Ponniyin Selvan I, GodFather in national earnings on day 12

Rishabh Shetty directed Kannada action drama Kantara is having a phenomenal run at the box office. In Karnataka, the film has grossed ₹58 crore since its release and is being dubbed and released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu following the tremendous response from audiences so far. On Tuesday, the film achieved a significant feat as its national collections on the day surpassed those of blockbuster Ponniyin Selvan: I and Chiranjeevi’s GodFather. Also read: GodFather box office day 3 collection: Chiranjeevi film enters ₹100 crore club

As per trade sources, the Kannada film has earned ₹80+ crore gross worldwide. On Tuesday, it earned around ₹5 crore nett domestically. In comparison, Mani Ratnam’s Tamil magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan: I earned around ₹4 crore in all languages while GodFather, the Telugu action thriller, netted just around ₹2 crore. This made Kantara the number one film at the box office on the day.

Kantara, which translates to mystical forest, tells the story of a local demigod (Bhoota) who trades forest land to the tribe’s people with a king in 1870 in exchange for happiness. Many years later, when the king’s son grows greedy and wants the land back, he dies due to the wrath of Bhoota.

Trade analyst Trinath said that the film has done unbelievable business at the Karnataka box office. “In 11 days since its release, the film grossed approximately ₹58 cr in Karnataka. In the limited number of theatres it released in other states, most of the shows are going houseful and theatre owners are slowly adding more shows. With the film ready for its dubbed release in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu, it’s set for a huge box office onslaught,” Trinath said.

What’s interesting to note is that Kantara released alongside Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan 1 and still managed to do extremely well at the ticket window. “PS 1 had a grand release in Karnataka with over 600 shows in its opening weekend. Despite the film doing extremely well in the state, it didn’t affect the prospects of Kantara at the box-office which made a solid impact with its content. The folklore element in Kantara was one of the major crowd-pulling highlights,” Trinath added.

Two dubbed versions of the film are hitting the screens this week while two others are slated to be released soon after. Kantara also stars Kishore, Achyuth Kumar, Sapthami Gowda and Pramod Shetty among others. Apart from directing, Rishabh also played the lead character.