‘Kantara Not To Be Remade In Hindi’: Rishab Shetty Doesn’t Want Bollywood To Touch Kantara

Everyone has been left stunned by the immense success of the small-budget movie – Kantara.  Nobody could have predicted that the movie made on a small budget of Rs 16 Crore would manage to make multiple records at the box office. The movie has received a rating

Kantara has received a 9.2 IMDb rating and has beaten KGF Chapter-2 (IMDb: 8.4) and RRR (IMDb: 8.0).

Kantara: Movie Plot & Summary

Kantara begins in the 18th century when a king exchanges a piece of land with his people and moves on to find peace and happiness. Centuries later, the same land becomes a threat to the tribals of that area. But they believe their demigods, doubling up as their guardians, protect the village. The story shifts to the 90s, and we see the face-off between villagers who dwell in the forests and the forest officer who wants to clear any encroachment in the area.

Shiva (Rishab Shetty) lives a carefree life with his friends and is often at loggerheads with forest officer Murali (Kishore), who just wants to uphold the law of the land. Kantara is about Shiva’s struggle to bring justice to the people of the village. An outstanding climax is the USP of Kantara. There are multiple viewpoints in Kantara, which are wonderfully brought together by Rishab, who has written and directed the film too.

The movie was released alongside PS-1 and witnessed a few days of silence – before capturing everyone’s attention. A lot of celebrities also came forward to praise the film. Kangana Ranaut, Vivek Agnihotri, Anil Kumble, Prashanth Neel, Dhanush, and Rana Daggubati, shared how they were blown away after watching the film.

Kantara is another successful south movie that exceeded expectations across India. Many wondered if struggling Bollywood would reach out to the makers for a remake. It is a very common trend in Bollywood to find a winning story from regional cinemas and create a remake. Janhvi Kapoor’s Mili is the latest example of one such winning story from the Malayalam film industry – Helen.

But Rishab Shetty, maker of Kantara, has shared his thoughts about the possibility of a Hindi remake. When enquired by ETimes as to who should hypothetically play his role in the remake, he simply answered, “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.”

Rishab also shared his thoughts about the Oscar hype surrounding Kantara. While addressing the Oscar hype, he said,“I don’t react to that. I just saw the 25000 tweets about that. It makes me happy but I don’t comment on that. Because I didn’t work for this success. I worked for work. That’s all.”

Finally, he shared his take on why South movies have been performing well in the Hindi market, To which he said, “This is seasonal. Every industry goes through ups and downs. Maybe audiences don’t bifurcate films such as Bollywood, Sandalwood, etc anymore. People look at it as Indian cinema. Kantara is Kannada, regional, Indian cinema. The same goes for Hindi cinema. People are crossing the language barrier and watching content from all parts of India. Every film industry has made an immense contribution to Indian cinema.

Have you watched Kantara yet? Share your thoughts in the comments below.