Indian cinema’s latest sensation, Rishab Shetty, now fondly called the Divine Star, grew up watching his uncle, who transformed into a saintly person from being a rogue and an immoral man after enlightenment. This change in personality always haunted Rishab, who often thought of creating a cinematic character based on his uncle.
“My uncle ended the practice of wearing footwear after enlightenment. He walked barefoot, became pious and attained divinity. His life became my inspiration to create the role of Shiva in Kantara,” said the actor-director.
Rishab, still basking in the mammoth success of his ecological thriller, revealed interesting facts about the film during an interaction with the ‘Karnataka Film Journalists’ Association’ in Bengaluru recently.
Legacy
The ace filmmaker humbly acknowledged that ‘Kantara’ is not the first Kannada film to showcase the mythology of Panjurli, Kola and Daivaradhane (worshipping of spirit). B V Karanth’s Chomana Dudi (1975) was the first film to have dealt with the myth of Panjurli.
“I frequently noticed forest dwellers, their rituals and practices. I decided to narrate their beliefs visually without offending anybody. This touched the sub-conscious minds of people and they were able to relate to the content,” he offered.
The core principle of Kantara is co-existence, said the 39-year-old. “I wanted to show that the holy spirit was capable of addressing the problems for co-existence. The film helped children to understand the belief of Daiva (spirit). In fact, Kantara enabled media to take up the problems faced by priests with the government and ensure that they received honorarium,” he opined.
Rishab was unhappy with how people treat Indian films based on beliefs as compared to foreign movies. “In Ben-Hur (1959) Jesus Christ cures skin disease by his touch. Indian film critics call the film a classic. If a saint performs a similar act in an Indian film, it is seen as a blind belief,” he pointed out.
Success story
“I didn’t imagine that Kantara would be such a huge hit and be dubbed in seven languages,” he admitted. “In Mumbai, it was released in 10 theatres on Friday, but on Saturday, the number went up to 110 and all theatres were full. We just released posters five days before the release in Andhra Pradesh for Telugu version. The film earned about Rs 30 crore in just four days. A strong word of mouth made this happen,” said the actor.
He said Kantara has proved that the audience can take a film to any extent if the content is good. “Myself and producer Vijay Kiragandur didn’t want to spend much money on promotion but we wanted to ensure that the film reached enough people early on. We had plans to market it if in case it creates a buzz. We were also clear about our target audience in the first phase of the release.” Rishab is surprised to see the film’s success even in the Hindi belt. “The Hindi version is being screened in theatres even after 100 days and despite the film being available on OTT platforms,” he added.
Kantara sequel
So has work for the prequel of Kantara begun? “We are researching for the script. Preliminary work is underway. In the prequel, the audiences are in for plenty of surprises, he promised. Even the film’s genre will be different, he said. The actor kept mum when asked if Superstar Rajinikanth would play a role in the prequel.
More experiments
Rishab wrapped up the interaction saying he is keen on adapting classic Kannada novels on the big screen and making children’s films.