Rishab Shetty to kickstart Kantara 2 in December; muhurtha in Udupi

If Rocking Star Yash’s next is one of the most anxiously awaited news updates in Kannada cinema circles, coming in at a close second is actor-filmmaker Rishab Shetty’s Kantara prequel, which was announced a year ago and is yet to take off. Following the success of Kantara, Rishab had said that he would make Kantara 2, but at the time, he had not immediately confirmed if it would take off from where Kantara ended or if he would explore an earlier time frame. It was some time later that Rishab finally clarified that what people had seen was actually Kantara 2 and what he was making next was the earlier story. He did not offer any further details, so speculation arose about whether the story would revolve around his character Shiva’s father, a daiva narthaka, who disappears in the forest when the former was a child, or, if Rishab would go several steps ahead and dip into the origin story of the daiva he introduced to audiences across the country – Panjurli.

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For quite a while, Rishab has been spending time back home in Mangaluru, focusing on the script work of the film, as well as prepping himself for his as-yet-undisclosed role. The actor-filmmaker has been growing out his hair and beard and taking horse riding as well as Kalaripayattu lessons. The film was earlier rumoured to go on floors by the end of August, but didn’t and then, recently Hombale Films had a recruitment drive for assistant directors for an upcoming project, which has been speculated to be Kantara 2. The buzz now is that with the crew also ready, the team will have a muhurtha on November 27 in Udupi, with actual shoot set to begin in December.

Kantara review: Spotlight's firmly on Rishab Shetty in this glorious piece of story-telling 

Kantara, which Rishab had made at relatively low budget that he says was the biggest for him as a filmmaker, was released in Kannada only initially, as the team felt it was a rooted story that would only appeal to people in the state. However, the film took on a life of its own and began doing so well that the other language dubbing processes had to be advanced and the versions sent into the market at record speed. Eventually, Kantara amassed a whopping Rs 400+ crore at the box office, of which Rishab is getting a quarter to spend on the next instalment, which is a major upgrade from the original.