Rishab Shetty on Kantara’s success: People asked me to make it a pan India film

Kannada actor and director Rishab Shetty is feeling overwhelmed these days as his latest directorial venture Kaantara is the current toast of the movie industry. Viewers and industry insiders have been praising it galore, including actors Shilpa Shetty Kundra and Anushka Shetty.

However, the actor-director tells us he never expected the film to do “this well” commercially. Which is why they also never dubbed it in other languages upon it’s initial release.

“The film is about man and nature’s relationship, and a part of Karnataka folklore. So I wanted to present this to people in my original language. But then the demand started for other versions as well. On Twitter, people would message me ‘Hindi, Telugu, Tamil mein release karo, isko pan India karo’. Mujhe pan India mein interest nahi tha to begin with,” says Shetty, contrary to the current hot trend.

He explains his reasons and says, “There are no language barriers now. There are no regional languages, it’s Indian cinema, isiliye itna pyaar mil raha hai Kantara ko. People abroad are watching it, bahut khushi hoti hai.”

As the maker, who also played the lead role in his film, initially Shetty released the film in select theatres. And as he expected, the response was a resounding success. This prompted them to expand to more theatres. “People themselves have promoted the film so much on social media. It is all word of mouth. Kantara jaisi film humne zyaada theatres mein release nahi ki thi, aur housefull toh pehle din hi ho gaya tha. Logon ka taste badal raha hai. They have begun to connect, and get conscious about Indian traditions,” beams the director, who has in the past helmed another acclaimed film, Kirik Party (2016).

Shetty emphasises that he has worked for 18 years to achieve all this success, and that it’s not overnight. “It’s not as if I have worked only for this (box office collections)… bas ab thoda balance ho raha hai. Mujhe andar se heavy laga, that’s why I decided to make this film. I am grateful to audiences from across languages- Malayalam, Telugu, and other countries,” he ends.