Kannada cinema in 2023: ‘Pan-India’ mantra falls flat in a mixed-bag year

Films aiming to be pan-Indian bit the dust, while quality writing and extraordinary promotions helped small-scale yet ambitious projects find success and please the local audience

After the humongous success of KGF: Chapter 1 (2018), a Kannada monthly magazine commented that the film’s popularity would be a double-edged sword for the Kannada film industry. This prediction came true in 2023 when R Chandru’s Kabzaa was declared a colossal mess. While the period gangster drama got dismissed as a KGF rehash, Prashanth Neel, the director of the KGF films, was slammed for having a hangover of the Yash-starrer in the recent action-drama Salaar: Part 1 - Ceasefire.

KGF enticed Kannada filmmakers to follow the pan-India route to earn big bucks. But success has no formula in cinema, and the failure of Darshan’s Kranti was a fine example of this notion. Releasing a film in five languages for the sake of it is a recipe for disaster; Darshan’s Kaatera, which received a terrific opening on the last Friday of the year, was well aware of that. 

Darshan, who has been an advocate of doing films only for the Kannada audience, was vociferous in confirming his stance. “I don’t fear the competition from other industries. Why should we hesitate to release our films in Kannada in Karnataka?” he asked the reporters during a press conference.

“Post the success of KGF: Chapter 2, Kantara and 777 Charlie, filmmakers set out to conquer the country. But reality told them it’s important to cater to their local audiences first. Regular Kannada filmgoers look forward to truly Kannada films and not necessarily for stories on a pan-India scale,” says senior film writer S Shyam Prasad.

Following a trend blindly is dangerous, says Akash R Patil, advocate and a Kannada film buff. “Even newcomers in Kannada want their films to be pan-Indian. It’s important for filmmakers to gain the Kannada audience’s trust first. The industry will witness more tentpole films next year as well, and I hope they don’t seem outdated,“ he says.  

Big stars, in chase of pan-India projects, went missing in 2023, putting the business of theatre owners in jeopardy. After a pathetic first six months of the year that saw zero hits, exhibitors blamed the lack of star films for poor footfalls at cinema halls. Shivarajkumar’s Ghost, which hit screens during a festival week, turned out to be a crowd-puller, but there weren’t many such examples.

The strong demand from the local audience for Kannada-dubbed films has propelled the dubbing movement in the state. From being in a nascent stage a couple of years ago, the campaign is seeing progress, says Ganesh Chethan of Kannada Grahakara Koota, a consumer forum that fought a legal battle against the dubbing ban in Karnataka. “The Kannada-dubbed version of Jailer and Salaar earned Rs 5 crore gross. The Kannada version of Salaar got 1000 shows in its first week,” he says.