Kabzaa: Netizens ask if Anand Pandit will walk away with all the credit for R Chandru’s hard work?

Kabzaa is Kannada filmmaker R Chandru’s dream project, which is also his most ambitious one to date. Intent on making a film with the same, if not better, visual grandeur as KGF, and packaged with a great story, he set out to make the film under his home banner, Sri Siddeshwara Enterprises way back in November 2019.

Late last year, when Chandru finished principal photography of Kabzaa, and was working on the post-production of the same, he began looking out for distribution partners across the country to present the film in all the relevant markets. One of the earliest signings was for the Hindi distribution rights, which Bollywood distributor and producer Anand Pandit had picked up for an undisclosed amount.

Cut to three months later, Anand Pandit is today not only credited as the producer of Kabzaa, along with Chandru in the trailer, but is also the recipient for all the love and praise coming the film’s way in the Hindi belt, including from Bollywood biggies like Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Suniel Shetty, Rakesh Roshan, Vidyut Jammwal and Manoj Bajpayee, among others. All of them have been calling it a film by their “friend” Anand Pandit and wishing him success. Interestingly, Chandru does not feature in any of these conversations on social media. The film's IMDB and wikipedia pages do not feature Anand as producer. 

"Wow! the trailer of #Kabzaa is power packed 🔥 Congrats to dear @anandpandit63 ji & the entire team. The world will witness a roaring saga of strength and resilience 💪🏼 #KabzaaTrailer OUT NOW 💫all set to storm Box-office on March 17th,2023...," wrote Manoj Bajpayee, while Ajay Devgn tweeted, "The "Underworld Ka Kabzaa" trailer is exciting. My best wishes to my friend @anandpandit63 and the entire team."

Netizens, though, have begun to take notice of this and are wondering if the Bollywood distributor will eventually walk away with all the credit of the years of hard-work that Chandru has put into the project. At present, Alankar Pandian and his Invenio Origin is credited as co-producer, which was also a deal that came late in the day, but the former has been clear about his involvement with the project, never once stealing the thunder from Chandru and reiterating that his partnership with the film is about ensuring it gets the right satellite and digital partnerships in the overseas market.