Hemanth M Rao: I hit the brakes on the release of Agnyathavasi because…

It’s been three years since Agnyathavasi, a murder mystery directed by Gultoo-maker Janardhan Chikkanna went on floors and it is only now, in April 2025, that it is finally coming to theatres. The delay, according to filmmaker Hemanth M Rao, who has produced the film, was intentional. “Three years is a massively long time; in fact we were ready with the film, but I delayed the release, or sort of hit the brakes in terms of the completion in terms of technical aspects was because the market was not conducive for cinema,” explained Hemanth, in a conversation with The Hindu.

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Hemanth M Rao: I cannot afford to lose the investment on Agnyathavasi

The filmmaker elaborates that Agnyathavasi has been made with money that he’s made from making other films; it’s an investment that he cannot afford to lose. Returning empty-handed was not an option for Hemanth, because he also had a couple of investors on board who’d shown faith in him, and, hence, needed to make good on the money. “The market was so bad in terms of acquisitions that no one was ready to come forward and buy films and pay value for the quality that’s been brought to the table,” he adds.

Agnyathavasi has Charan Raj on board as composer and Advaitha Gurumurthy as cinematographer, and for that level of technical finesse put into a film, the kind of offers Hemanth got were so low that he decided to wait it out till things get better. Unfortunately for Hemanth, that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen anytime soon.

Elaborating on the current market dynamics, Hemanth reckons that it is a course correction of sorts. “Buying patterns have changed completely. OTT platforms are very selective of which films they pick up. It’s very knowledge that even big films are not being picked up; not just in Kannada, but in all other languages,” Hemanth says. The course correction, he adds, is happening because during the pandemic, a lot of money was pumped into the market by platforms, because they were just making baby steps.

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But now that they are firmly set in the market, they are buying only those films that will work for them strategically. “From their perspective they are right, but as far as we are concerned, it is not meeting a certain value, then the whole point of making a film is lost. The realization now is that if people want to watch a Kannada film, they have to come to theatres. We have to make sure that we’ve made a good enough film for them to watch and have them spread the word. This narrative right now is for Malayalam, Tamil and even Telugu cinema,” says Hemanth.