Kamal Haasan, Prithviraj Sukumaran hail Rishab Shetty's Kantara as the best film of the year, say the film blew their minds

Kannada Cinema is certainly on the rise and films like KGF 2, Kantara, and a few others have helped the industry slowly gain global promise. Kantara, especially, has been a major point of discussion over the past couple of months with critics and audiences alike responding to the film with great gusto. In the same manner, Rishab Shetty's film has also attracted praise and approval from some of the biggest names of the Indian film fraternity - veteran actor and filmmaker Kamal Haasan being one of them.

In a recent tête-à-tête with Film Companion, the Vikram actor shared his views on how the year 2022 shaped up for Indian cinema in general with him, along with fellow interviewees, enunciating that the need to pay heed to what the audience loves is more apparent than ever. Alongside, Haasan also spoke about that one film of the year that charmed him the most - his pick, much to the delight of the Kannada cinema fans, is Hombale Films' Divine Blockbuster.

While speaking about the one film that blew his film mind in 2022, Kamal Haasan said, "I think Kantara is a great example. I am happy because I also belong to the Kannada Film Industry so I think the clouds have parted and more & more people are thinking differently in Karnataka - the land that gave us Vamsha Vriksha, Ondanondu Kaladalli, Kaadu, etc. Those days are returning, I feel."

For Prithviraj Sukumaran, who was part of the same Film Companion lineup along with Kamal Haasan, Kantara has been more than just an enthralling movie-watching experience. Having watched and loved the film, he would come on board as the distributor of the Malayalam version of Kantara and since then been a proud endorser.

"2022 has seen some great work from across industries but one film that probably made me go "oh, I wish that happened in Malayalam or that I was part of it" was maybe Kantara," said the Salaar actor.