KGF, Kantara producers to invest Rs 3,000 crore over 5 years

Rank 6 | Kantara | Estimated budget: Rs 16 crore | Estimated worldwide gross: Rs 407 crores | A 2022 Kannada language action thriller film is directed by Rishab Shetty involves culture of Kambala and Bhootha Kola. A human and nature conflict where Shiva is a rebel who defends his village and nature. A death leads to war between villagers and evil forces. The film received acclaim from critics, who praised the cast performances (particularly those of Shetty and Kishore), direction, writing, production design, cinematography, proper showcasing of the Bhoota Kola, action sequences, editing, soundtrack, and musical score. (Image: IMDB)

More blockbusters are in the offing. Producers of the two successful ventures of 2022, KGF 2 and Kantara, the Kannada-language films that set the box office blazing, are all set with their content pipeline for the next two years.

Hombale Films, the film production company behind the KGF franchise and Kantara, will be investing Rs 3,000 crore over the next five years. It plans to make 10-12 films over the next two years.

Upcoming releases

"We want to do at least one big movie every year. In 2022, we had KGF 2 and Kantara. In 2023, we have Salaar and expect it to be a big hit. Four more movies are in the pipeline for next year, including Fahadh Faasil's Dhoomam, which will be released in five languages (Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Hindi), the Tamil film Raghuthata, Bagheera written by Prashant Neel, the director of KGF 2. We are also introducing Yuva Rajkumar, the grandson of  Rajkumar, the Kannada superstar of yesteryear," said Vijay Kiragandur, Founder, Hombale Films.

He said that Salaar will be released on a big scale with the company targeting 70-75 percent of the screens in India.

For 2024, Hombale Films has joined hands with Prithviraj Sukumaran for the social thriller Tyson, which will be a pan-India release. Another production of theirs will feature Sudha Kongara and the other film is Richard Anthony starring Rakshit Shetty of Kantara fame.

The company has recorded about 25 times more business this year versus 2019, and expects the momentum to continue due to their upcoming projects, said Chaluve Gowda, Partner, Hombale Films.

KGF, Kantara boosts Kannada film industry

About their upcoming projects, Gowda said that Covid had altered a lot of things, and that the audience wanted change. "People have seen films from all languages, we have to give them something they haven't watched on streaming platforms. We are choosing stories differently, and we believe in deeply rooted stories that showcase Indian culture and tradition that can be documented in movies for  future generations," added Gowda.

Gowda also said that following the release of KGF 1, the Kannada film industry got the exposure it needed.

"Around 10-20 years back, even good films didn't get much exposure. Rajkumar's movies were dubbed into other languages, there were good directors and stories, but the films were not marketed well. The films did not go outside of Karnataka. Our neighbouring states made the effort to go outside. This is what we concentrated on during KGF 1's release, with our marketing cost exceeding our production cost," he added. KGF 1 was made on a budget of Rs 80 crore.

"With two big successes, KGF 2 and Kantara, Kannada-language films have an all-time high share of the Indian box office, at 9 percent, which is almost twice its share in 2019. Thirty-seven percent of Hindi box office figures of this year has been generated through Hindi-dubbed versions of Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada language films," noted Gautam Jain, Partner, Ormax Media, a media consulting firm.

Gowda said that while they were confident about KGF 2, given all the surveys they had conducted, Kantara came as a surprise. "We conducted surveys in the southern states, where 87 percent of the people wanted to watch KGF 2. All data indicated it would become one of the biggest blockbuster hits of 2022. But we did not expect Kantara to become so big. We initially released it in 250 screens in Karnataka. The very next day we increased the screen count to about 500 screens, and at the same time we sped up the process of dubbing the film in four different languages. The screen count for Kantara later touched 2,000," he elaborated.

Kantara collected over Rs 400 crore worldwide, while KGF 2 did a business of over Rs 1,000 crore globally. Kantara’s dubbed versions (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam) contributed Rs 188 crore to the film’s total box office collection and KGF 2’s dubbed version contributed around Rs 682 crore.

Gowda said the Kannada film industry had emerged as a tough competitor to Tamil, Telugu, and the Hindi movie industries.

Out of the Rs 9,024 crore box office business from January to October, 2022, Hindi films have a 33 percent share, followed by Telugu at 22 percent, Tamil at 18 percent, Kannada at 9 percent, and Hollywood and Malayalam films together at 7 percent, and others at 5 percent, explained Jain.

Language expansion

The company plans to make films in other languages as well,  like Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam. "We are also working on some scripts in Hindi, and if all goes well we will be making Hindi films as well," said Gowda.

He added that releasing a film in more than five languages in theatres does not make business sense. "We can look at theatrical releases of films in Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali, but in these states people can comfortably watch in Hindi. We released KGF 1 in Bengali and Gujarati on OTT, so there is a market. But not in theatre releases. Also, Kantara is all set to release in English on Netflix next month. We want to take Kantara to a larger audience, and Netflix has the reach," Gowda added.

Streaming a lifesaver

Gowda also highlighted how streaming platforms have changed the overall business proposition for the entertainment industry.

"OTT has been a life saver for producers during the pandemic. Most producers survived because of OTT, otherwise they would have gone bankrupt. But at the same time people should not make too many movies for OTT. For KGF 2 we had delayed the OTT release because it was an event film and the kind of revenue we expected would not have come from OTT. But smaller players depend a lot more on OTT," said Gowda.

For Hombale Films, 65 percent of the revenue comes from theatrical releases, while 35 percent of the business comes from streaming platforms.

Along with its upcoming projects, the production house is looking at producing sequels of Kantara, KGF, and Salaar. "We are working on something (for Kantara's sequel), it is there in our to-do list. For KGF 3,  we are waiting for Prashant Neel to start the work. He is currently busy with Salaar," added Gowda.