Kantara 2 – Rishab Shetty to unveil a 'darshan' of the prequel on THIS date

Over the last several days, there were murmurs in industry circles and social media that actor-filmmaker Rishab Shetty was all set to take Kantara 2 on floors, with a muhurtha on November 27 and actual shooting beginning sometime in December. Turns out, Rishab has already begun work on the prequel, and is presenting the first look of Kantara – A Legend on November 27 at 12.25 pm. The announcement poster from production banner Hombale Films reads – It’s not just light, it’s a darshana.

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Although the 2022 megahit Kantara was meant to be about class inequality and land-grabbing, the film’s spiritual angle, about the local daiva Panjurli and his kshetrapalaka Guliga, is what caught the attention of audiences, not only in the coastal belt, where they are revered, but all across the nation. This spurred lead actor Rishab Shetty to look at developing a story around these divine beings for the next Kantara film he was making. What audiences had seen was Kantara 2 and he was doing a prequel, he had said. Armed with a Rs 100 crore budget for the film, Rishab is said to be delving into the origins of Panjurli and Guliga. But the actor-filmmaker may just surprise with a totally different spin, as he has been sporting a long-haired and bearded look and undertook horse-riding and kalarippayattu lessons as well.

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This time around, the makers have announced that Kantaa - A Legend will be a 7 language version, including Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali and English. When Kantara - Ondu Dandakathe came out last year, the makers had released it in Kannada only, as they thought of it as a rooted story that would, perhaps, appeal to local audiences only. But such was the response to it that they had to advance the dubbing plans, which were meant for the film's OTT outing only, and release the films in multiple languages within a couple of weeks. Subsequently, after the film came on Netflix, they added an English version as well.