Kantara: Rishab Shetty on Hindi remake, Bollywood’s 'lost glory', his special appeal and more

Kannada movie Kantara continues to roar at the box office with massive love and appreciation from the audience across the globe. Meanwhile, actor-director-writer Rishab Shetty is on 'cloud nine' after being flooded with admiration of several biggies from different movie industries in India as well as critical acclaim.

Kantara’s latest box office collection

The worldwide box office collection of Kantara has zoomed past Rs 250 crore. With the massive collection, it is just behind KGF Chapter 2’s gross BO collection globally. Recently, it surpassed KGF: Chapter 1’s collection to grab the second position in the list of highest-grossing Kannada movies.

Kantara’s Hindi remake

Though being a Kannada movie, Kantara released in multiple languages after a thumping success at the regional box office. 

Meanwhile, speculations were rife that Bollywood filmmakers may show interest in the Hindi remake of the magnificent movie continuing their tradition of 'movie remakes'. 

However, when asked about the idea of the Hindi remake of Kantara, Rishab said, “To play such characters you have to believe in the roots and culture. There are many big actors in the Hindi film industry whom I admire. But I am not interested in remakes.”

Special appeal to the audience

Kantara was all about a specific tribal culture and tradition of Karnataka. The hangover of the movie still remains afresh in the minds of movie lovers. However, some of the admirers have been imitating the sounds used in the movie. 

As per some media reports, Rishab appealed to one and all not to imitate sounds used in the movie. “I request the audience who watched Kantara, not to imitate the sounds used in the film. It is related to cultural sentiment and traditional beliefs. It is a sensitive matter which may disturb sentiments,” said Rishab.

What helped Kantara thrive globally?

The fever of Kantara has gripped movie lovers. Talking about the movie’s idea, recently during an interview said that he wanted to make a film about the soil, tradition, and culture in coastal Karnataka that the rest of Karnataka isn’t fully aware of. 

As Rishab believes the more regional is more universal. “I was exploring the struggle between man and nature through the tradition of ‘Daiv’. And I also wanted to tell the story of our agriculture,” the Kantara actor was quoted by ETimes as saying. 

Further, Rishab also went on to say that he wanted the movie to be recognised as Kannada cinema. Even the makers had initially planned to release it on OTT but, the winds changed after the release. The word of mouth spread like wildfire and paved the way for Kantara to register new records globally. 

Rishab talks about Bollywood’s lost glory

Talking about Bollywood’s current status, Rishab said that this is seasonal. He further went on to say that every industry goes through ups and downs. 

Further, Rishab shared his opinion that probably the audiences now don’t distinguish movies as products of Bollywood, Sandalwood, etc. People are crossing the language barrier and watching content from all parts of India. 

“Kantara is Kannada, regional, Indian cinema. People look at it as Indian cinema,” he added. 

Rishab celebrating overwhelming success of Kantara

Rishab visited Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Mumbai on Sunday morning and the pics soon stormed the internet. The actor offered prayers at the temple after following the massive success of Kantara at the box office.

After Thalaiva Rajinikanth showered praises for Kantara and Rishab, on Friday, the fanboy met megastar Rajinikanth at his residence in Chennai. Later on Saturday, he shared pictures of his meeting. He captioned the set pictures, "If you praise us once it is equal to you praising us 100 times. Thank you. Rajinikanth sir, we will be forever grateful to you for watching our film and praising our film Kanatara."

Plans of Rishab 

As an audience, Rishab said that he likes the stories that are about his country, village, culture, and language. “The Indian culture and way of life are different from the rest of the world. I’d be happy to see that being shown in any form of content. That’s our sentiment and our responsibility as filmmakers/storytellers, to tell future generations about our traditions. The future generations should have something to see about our traditions and culture.