Will aha's Kudi Yedamaithe release in Kannada? Director Pawan Kumar clears the air

Director Pawan Kumar ushered in a new era of storytelling in Kannada cinema with his arrival, thanks to the enormous success of Lucia and U Turn. The filmmaker eventually remade U Turn in Telugu and Tamil with the same title and is now awaiting the release of his first OTT show Kudi Yedamaithe, starring Amala Paul and Rahul Vijay. To stream on aha from July 16, Kudi Yedamaithe is a sci-fi crime thriller revolving around a no non-sense cop Durga and a delivery boy Aadhi. 

Having been a filmmaker who has sought to give a new lease of life to the Kannada industry, many of his followers have been prodding him with messages if his upcoming series would have a release in Kannada as well. Clearing the air about the same, the director posted a 7-minute-long video message explaining why that the answer to those questions isn't simply a yes or a no. 

"The moment I began posting numerous updates about my next Telugu web series, I've been flooded with messages if the show would release in Kannada as well. To those who aren't in the know, aha is a Telugu-exclusive platform. This is a story written by Ram Vignesh that I've adapted and directed for Telugu audiences. All the notable crew who've worked on the project have also been there with me for U Turn, Lucia and hail from Bengaluru, be it Advaitha Gurumurthy (cinematography), Poornachandra Tejaswi (music), Suresh (editor), Hari (sound), Adarsh (poster design), Dhanush, Lakshmi (direction team), Sagar, Manu and Achyuth (camera department)," he said.

Sharing some harsh truths about the Kannada industry, Pawan Kumar stated, "If I need to be honest about the release of Kudi Yedamaithe in Kannada, we don't have a homegrown OTT platform yet that'll be willing to dub it in the language. Sakkath Studios' Kannada show Honeymoon had to be dubbed in Telugu to be released on aha. The Kannada industry is yet to stand together and come up with a solution for this."

Requesting audiences to stand up for home-grown creators like him and many more, he mentioned, "Keeping all this aside, aha has plans to enter Tamil and Kannada industries soon. If the Kannada audiences treat me and the show's crew as their own, I would ask them to watch the show with subtitles. It's possible that the interest shown by viewers from Karnataka could prompt them to come up with an OTT platform in Kannada as well. This generation of viewers with some forethought should consider subscribing to aha, encourage us. I'm not asking for charity and your subscription enables you to watch more content beyond this show. While some OTT platforms want to enter Kannada soon, audiences must stand up for the creators too, i.e. if you don't want more Kannada directors going to Telugu to make a show."

After Kudi Yedamaithe, Pawan Kumar will commence shoot for Puneeth Rajkumar-starrer Dvitva in September.