Kantara in Hindi: Initial reviews in; everyone loves Rishab Shetty’s film

In a day and age when the trend is to make pan-India/pan-world movies with versions in multiple languages, it takes gumption to go against this formula. And that’s what Kannada actor-filmmaker Rishab Shetty did with his film, Kantara. His film, which is rooted deeply in the culture and traditions of coastal Karnataka, was released in theatres across the globe in Kannada only, with English subtitles. The film opened to rave reviews and has been taking the box office by storm. The success of the film, of course, created a lot of intrigue among non-Kannadiga audiences in different parts of the country, and a demand for it to be dubbed in other languages and released in theatres.

Production banner Hombale Films and Rishab Shetty, who were planning to dub the film in time for its OTT debut on Amazon Prime, had to advance these plans and now, the other versions are ready for consumption. Tomorrow, the Hindi version of Kantara releases in theatres. The makers have already shown the film to a section of media and other stakeholders and much like how it was back home, those who have seen Kantara can’t stop singing its praise.

Pretty much every critic worth his/her salt has been calling Kantara “brilliant”, “mesmerizing”, “masterpiece”, “must-watch”, “perfection”, “epic”, and so much more. The film, they believe, will appeal to audiences in the Hindi belt too. On bookmyshow, for instance, where Kantara’s Kannada version enjoys a 99% rating, the Hindi version is garnering more interest than Dr G, Code Name Tiranga and other releases of the week.

Rishab is currently in Mumbai, where he is promoting the Hindi version of the film, which is being distributed by Anil Thadani, a frequent Hombale Films collaborator. The Telugu version of the film will release on October 15, followed by Tamil on October 16. The Malayalam version is likely to come out on October 17, but this has not been officially confirmed.