Kannada film actor, director, and screenwriter Rishab Shetty announced on February 8 that he is not done with his 2022 critical and financial hit Kantara . His next project, teased as Kantara 2 , will serve as a prequel to the 90s era story that he explored in the first film.
Made on a budget of Rs 16 crore, Kantara turned out to be last year’s sleeper hit with a box office collection of Rs 450 crore breaking several records for Sandalwood (Kannada film industry). Seconded only by KGF: Chapter 2, Kanatara is the highest-grossing Kannada film of all time. So, definitely, a lot would be banking on the next film in Shetty’s Kantara universe.
Kantara plays out as an intergenerational story with Shetty’s protagonist Shiva trying to get past the trauma of the disappearance of his father, a practitioner of the ritual dance Bhoota Kola. The ritual plays a crucial role in the plot as the task of performing it serves as a hereditary role that even Shiva has to inherit.
With most of the action taking place in 1990, the opening minutes of Kantara take the story way back to 1847 ( with a detour to 1970, where Shiva’s father comes into the picture). The years that transpired between 1847 and 1970 would provide enough space to explore more narratives around the inhabitants of the Kaadubettu village and their relation with the local deity Panjurli Daiva.
With its ambitious runtime of 150 minutes, Kantara touched upon diverse themes like religion, environmentalism, family dynamics, and the aftermath of human greed and modernisation. As the 1847 flashback in the first film also offered hints of the local faith and the destructive human nature, Shetty would have to explore new angles to make Kantara truly stand out.
