Raj B Shetty: Can’t blame audiences for watching films in other languages

During the promotions of his next, Rakkasapuradhol, Raj B Shetty said that the quality of cinema made in Kannada is not at par with that in, say, Malayalam or Telugu.

Raj B Shetty gets candid

Actor-filmmaker Raj B Shetty is in the midst of promoting his next release, Rakkasapuradhol, which hits theatres on February 6, 2026. Raj is not known to do a lot of publicity, unless, of course, his involvement is limited to being on the cast of a film. In the last couple of months, he has done a fair share of interviews for 45 , Landlord and now, Rakkasapuradhol, but he’s also clear not to overdo it. He’d rather let the work do the talking.

As was the case with his last production venture, Su From So , for which he did no pre-release promotion, but focused all his energy on getting audiences to talk about the film with paid premieres. Discussing his strategy on the Gold Class with Mayuraa podcast, Raj said that for a while, audiences have been irked hearing film teams whining that they would have watched certain films if they had been made in, say, Malayalam, Tamil or Telugu, but not in Kannada.

What does Kannada cinema need to do to get better, according to Raj B Shetty?

“See, you have to try and understand audiences. You can’t blame audiences for watching films in other languages. The way I see it, we are not able to make films as good as those in other languages for multiple reasons. We have to admit this. For instance, look at the standards of acting there and compare it with Kannada cinema. The same is the case with technical finesse. In Malayalam cinema, the minimum budget for a film is around Rs 5 cr to 8 cr, whereas we are still doing it in Rs 2-2.5 cr. Unless we introspect and see where we are weak, only then can we aim to do better,” said Raj.

Also read: Raj B Shetty on the difference between Kannada and Malayalam cinema: Last year, they made 160 films, we had 260, but...

The actor-filmmaker added that audiences do not fall for feedback from celebrity shows either. “When have you ever heard someone say a film is bad at a celebrity show? Audiences have hit saturation point with this fake publicity – that’s what I understood. So, I put out a request for people to come and watch the film and then say what they felt about it,” added Raj, who opened premiere shows in different parts of Karnataka as much as 5 days before the release of the film. This, he reckons, would have backfired massively, if the film had garnered average reviews.

But what if the videos from the premieres are manipulated, highlighting only the positive feedback? Raj says that the very first show of Su From So was for the family and friends of the cast and crew, but they did not use any footage from that. “From the next show onward, we ensured that there were no freebies being given away and that only those with tickets that they’d paid for would be in the hall. And that is when people realized that the biggest selling point of Su From So was that I have acted in it, which I had not revealed anywhere. So that was a surprise,” he says.

Most importantly, what eventually worked for the team was that it was an entertainer and people liked it. With his next, Rakkasapuradhol also, Raj is starting with a paid premiere in Mysuru, given that the film is set in Chamarajnagar. The response to this will decide if the team will have more such shows in other cities a day ahead of the actual release on February 6.

Also read: Raj B Shetty on what’s ailing Kannada cinema: We have gone from…

Rakkasapuradhol FAQs

Q. Where to watch Rakkasapuradhol?

A. Rakkasapuradhol will release in theatres on February 6, 2026

Q. What is Rakkasapuradhol about?

A. Rakkasapuradhol is a mystery thriller about a murder case, that the towns folk believe is the work of the Kolli Deva. Is there a supernatural element to this killing?

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