Mahavatar’s divine run, new VFX studio make KGF and Kantara makers go big on animation

"We started a VFX studio last month under the name of Astra Studios with ex-Technicolor employees. We have onboarded about 200 ex-employees," Gowda told Moneycontrol.

One of the biggest animation and visual effects companies, Technicolor Group shut its India operations in February this year, resulting in job losses for around 2,500 employees.

"It all started because the MPC (Moving Picture Company owned by Technicolor) was working on Kantara's VFX. When they closed it down, it (VFX work) was half done. We wanted help from them and we also wanted to help them out. They completed our project even though they were not working in MPC anymore. They sat in some other office, took all the half-done assets and completed the work on Kantara. We have seen those people's work very closely. During the course of interaction we just thought of starting a bootstrapped company," he said.

With the new VFX studio, Gowda not only plans to do more made in India animation and VFX content but will also onboard Hollywood projects.

"With Hollywood resuming work (after the writers' and actors' strike), we should get a lot of work back in India. We have our own IPs (Intellectual Properties). We want to explore a few things with our KGF and Kantara characters. Whatever movies we do, we want to try something like gaming and the VFX version of the characters."

For the new company, Gowda's goal is to do 30 percent of Indian projects and bring 50 percent work from outside the country to make business profitable while remaining will be their own IPs.

Mahavatar universe

Expanding the animation and VFX work, the Mahavatar universe has nine films in the pipeline. "The next venture will be (Mahavatar) Parshuram, followed by other avatars of Narasimha. Parshuram will come in 2027. We have planned the release of all the nine movies until 2035," he said.

The first installment in the franchise Mahavatar Narsimha, released on July 25, has become the first animated film in India to collect Rs 100 crore. Gowda is confident that the film will surpass Rs 200 crore.

If the movie sustains the momentum after the August 15 releases - Hrithik Roshan and Jr NTR-starrer War 2 and Rajinikanth's Coolie, the producer expects the film to touch the Rs 250-crore mark.

"If we can get the same number of screens then it should touch Rs 250 crore easily. In North India, the movie is running in around 1,500 to 1,800 screens and in similar numbers down South with a total of about 3,000 screens," he added.

The movie is seeing higher audience traction in the North than South.

Out of the Rs 109.84 crore collected so far, the Hindi version accounts for 73 percent with business of Rs 80.59 crore. Collection from the Telugu language version is Rs 24.97 crore, followed by Kannada at Rs 2.79 crore, Tamil at Rs 1.22 crore, and Malayalam at Rs 27 lakh.

"We expected it (Mahavatar) to run but not to this extent. When we collaborated with the director (Ashwin Kumar) and when we saw the initial footages, it aligned with our vision of telling Indian stories to the world. We definitely had faith in the movie but the kind of response, it's tremendous, and  more than what we expected," Gowda said.

Mahavatar has recorded more than three times return on investment (ROI) so far. Gowda clarified that the movie is made on a budget of around Rs 30 crore. He noted that the upcoming installments in franchise will have bigger budgets and will be released like an A-list movie.

Hombale's Maha moves

Beyond animation, Hombale Films is looking forward to its next big release, the second installment of the popular movie Kantara.

"Kantara: Chapter 1 is coming up on October 2. We also have three movies with Prabhas (of Baahubali fame), and we have signed Hrithik Roshan too. We are in talks with two- three more directors and big artists. The plan is to do at least one pan-India movie every year but also do the regional movies. We will continue to do Kannada movies and other regional movies," he said.

Gowda pointed out that the second half of 2025 has started on a strong note for the Kannada film industry. Along with Mahavatar, Su From So, another Kannada movie, is faring well at the box office with business of Rs 45 crore, made with a budget of around Rs 3 crore.

However, the first half was a miss despite some good content, the producer said.

In the first half of 2025, it was hard to get people to theatres but the second half of the year is turning out to be good for the Kannada industry. Last year was a bad phase. Satellite and digital players were reluctant to buy movies. But with the success of these movies in theatres, they are coming forward now."

Producer of Su From So, Raj Shetty has added a lot of intrigue to the movie, said Vivek Menon of NV Capital. "The RRR of Kannada cinema, Rakshit, Rishab and Raj Shetty have been known for their performances and quality content. The movies of these three actors have always done well."

He added that while the Kannada content has been sporadic and not always consistent, production houses like Hombale films as well as actors like Yash, Rakshit Shetty and Rishab Shetty are pushing the envelope in providing content which resonate with the masses.