Kannada film Kantara continues to hog the headlines since its release. The astounding reviews, reactions and IMDb ratings helped the movie to rake in impressive collections. Now, with its soaring success, finally, Kantara outranked Yash starrer KGF: Chapter1 and grabbed the second spot in the list of the highest-grossing Kannada cinema.
As per Pinkvilla's report, Kantara collected Rs 170 crore in India and Rs 18 crore overseas taking the total worldwide gross collection to Rs 188 crore. With this, it became the second highest-grossing Kannada film of all time just behind KGF: Chapter 2. It is believed that the Diwali weekend gave a boost to the flick's collections. Soon, it will be crossing the Rs 200 crore mark. It is expected that before the end of the fourth week, Kantara will cross the Rs 200 mark.
'Kantara' has collected Rs 111 crore approximately so far in Karnataka, with Rs 14 crore the fourth weekend, which is double of the full fourth week of 'KGF 2'.
Kantara in controversy!
While movie lovers and celebrities across the country are showering praises for Kantara, the Kannada movie seems to have landed in a controversy after an alleged claim of plagiarism over one of its tracks titled 'Varaha Roopam'.
A Kerala-based band 'Thaikkudam Bridge' has accused the makers of Kantara of ripping off their song Navarasam. As per their allegations, Varaha Roopam has the same melody as that of Navarasam and follows the same chord progression on guitars with the only difference of being a prominent Nadaswaram in the former while 'Navarasam' has the same spectrum of notes played on Carnatic violin.
The band expressed their displeasure on social media and released a statement. The band also mentioned that they're mulling over taking legal action against the team of Kantara and its producers, Hombale Films to settle the dispute and infringement of their intellectual property.
They shared the album cover of their song Navarasam along with the poster of Varaha Roopam. The caption for the post read, "From our and our partner's standpoint, we would like our listeners to know that Thaikkudam Bridge is in no way or form affiliated with 'Kantara'. The unavoidable similarities between our IP 'Navarasam' and 'Varaha Roopam; in terms of audio is, therefore, a blatant infringement of copyright laws."
Further, the caption read, "From our standpoint, the line between 'Inspired' and 'Plagiarized' is distinct and indisputable and therefore we will be seeking legal action against the creative team responsible for this. There has been no acknowledgment of our rights over the content and the song is propagated as an Original piece of work by the movie's creative team".
It is pertinent to mention here that, in Kantara, Varaha Roopam comes at an important plot point during the dance performance of Buta Kola when the Guliga God possesses the body of one of the characters.
(With inputs from IANS)