Kantara on OTT: Amazon Prime Video yet to officially confirm November 24 as the D-Day

In the last few days, the buzz surrounding the OTT debut of Rishab Shetty’s blockbuster Kantara has been in crescendo, with November 24 confirmed as the date by everyone but the team and Amazon Prime Video. Industry trackers are betting hard on November 24 being the D-Day, based on one alleged response from Amazon Help confirming the date. In the days since, though, there has been no other update to this effect and Prime Video has not officially announced November 24, even though social media is flooded with what looks like fake announcement posters confirming the date. 

While it would not be prudent to make a last-minute announcement about the film’s availability on the platform, given the heightened interest in the title, it really doesn’t make a difference anymore. But then, Amazon Prime Video has been particular about announcing the arrival of big titles on its platform, so there will be official word from the streamer.

The question now is, is the fact that they are yet to make an announcement indication that November 24 may also not be the OTT premiere date? There has been no word on the impasse between Hombale Films, the production house that backed Kantara, and the Malayalam band Thaikkudam Bridge in the copyright suit, which currently prevents the makers of the film from putting the much-loved song Varaha Roopam on any streaming site. Earlier this week, Thaikkudam Bridge performed their song Navarasam, which they claim is the source material for Varaha Roopam, at an event in Bengaluru.

We tried asking Karthik Gowda of Hombale Films, if there was some truth to the November 24 date, but there was no response from him until the time of publication. Earlier, when November 4 was being reported as the film’s OTT release date, Karthik had taken to social media to negate this information, saying that an announcement would be made at the right time.

Reports also suggest that if Kantara does make it to Prime Video this week, it will only be in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam, with the Hindi version to drop at a later date. It is also being said that Kantara will be available on rent-only for a while. Prime Video had kept the much-awaited KGF: Chapter 2 also on its store for early access to subscribers and non-subscribers for about two weeks, while 777 Charlie, which came on the platform on September 30, is still on rental-only, with the Hindi version continuing to be its top performer.