Kantara: Rishab Shetty’s Kannada film to get 20 premiere shows in north India

The countdown to Kannada actor-filmmaker Rishab Shetty’s next, Kantara, has well and truly begun. In less than 24 hours, the film will open at several location across the country with paid premieres. Initially, it was announced that Kantara would premiere in centres across Karnataka, as well as a few select halls in Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi and Kasaragod. But then, today, makers Hombale Films revealed that there will be as many as 20 premieres of the film in the northern parts of the country as well. What makes this significant is the fact that Kantara is releasing in Kannada only, with English subtitles. This is, apparently, a first for Kannada cinema, given that the focus is normally to release a dubbed version suitable for the region and only then allot the Kannada version in select locations. But since Kantara has not been dubbed, demand for 20 shows is a positive sign of original content consumption.

According to the official announcement, PVR Cinemas, Inox Cinemas and Cinepolis will have paid premieres of the film in Ghatkopar, Kurla, Chembur, Andheri, Goregaon, Malad, Thane, Dombivali, Panvel, Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Margoa and Provorim.

Written and directed by Rishab, who also plays the lead in the film, Kantara also stars Kishore, Sapthami Gowda, Achyuth Kumar and Pramod Shetty in pivotal roles. The film has music by Ajaneesh Loknath and cinematography by Aravind Kashyap and revolves around a man vs man as well as a man vs nature conflict in an eco-sensitive zone.

Meanwhile, online bookings for Kantara have picked up with almost half of the premiere shows in Bengaluru at decent occupancy. However, it is still lagging far behind the bookings of this week’s big release, Ponniyin Selvan, shows for which on September 30 in 2D are fast filling, while the 2D Imax shows are almost all sold out.