Karki OTT release date: When and where to watch drama on caste and social justice

Tamil filmmaker Pavithran, best known for films like Vasanthakala Paravai, Kallori Vaasal and Selva, among others, made his Kannada cinema debut in 2024. Pavithran’s maiden venture, though, was not an original, but an adaptation of a highly-feted Tamil film by Pa.Ranjith, namely Pariyerum Perumal, which released in 2018. It was one of 7 releases that week and remained relatively unnoticed.

Karki headed to Sun NXT

Starring Jai Prakash Reddy (of Whatsapp Love fame), and Iratta’s Meenakshi Dinesh, who debuted in Kannada with this film, Karki, which has the tagline Nanu BA LLB, is now ready for its OTT outing, 9 months after its theatrical outing. The film has been picked up by Sun Network and will begin streaming on Sun NXT on June 20, 2025. It will be available on OTTplay Premium too. It is the latest Kannada film on the platform, after films like Maryade Prashne, Vidyapati, Rakshasa, Laughing Buddha, Shivamma, and more.

Karki, according to reports, does not stray much from the source material and revolves around the protagonists, Muttathi Muthuraj (Jai Prakash) and Jyoti Lakshmi (Meenakshi). Muthuraj hails from a ‘lower caste’, while Jyoti belongs to the upper echelons. Both are aspiring law graduates, with Muthuraj dreaming of becoming an advocate and fighting for the cause of the marginalised. A gripping drama, Karki is about caste-based violence.

Karki joins a list of films from the last couple of years to have made it to OTT, a rarity for Kannada films these days. Sun NXT, for instance, has got only 3 films from 2025, of which one went to Prime first and then landed on the platform. Following Karki, the streamer is set to bring another Kannada film that had positive word-of-mouth, Nimma Vasthugalige Neeve Javaabdaararu to audiences. In the first 5 months of 2025, over 100 films released, and not even a fifth have made it to streaming yet. Sun and Prime Video have been the only takers so far.