A 2022 Indian action thriller film titled Kantara, sometimes known as “Mystical Forest,” was written and directed by Rishab Shetty and produced by Vijay Kiragandur for Hombale Films. Shetty plays a Kambala champion in the movie kantara who clashes with Murali, an honourable DRFO officer (Kishore). Sapthami Gowda and Achyuth Kumar play minor parts of kantara
Principal photography started in August 2021, with Keraadi in coastal Karnataka serving as the location.
Arvind S. Kashyap handled the film’s cinematography; B. Ajaneesh Loknath composed the score; and two-time National Award–winning action director Vikram More choreographed the fight scenes. Dharani Gange Putra, a rookie, was in charge of the production design.
On September 30, 2022, Kantara was released. Both critics commended the cast performances (especially those of Shetty and Kishore), the narrative, director, production design, cinematography, proper display of the Bhoota Kola, action sequences, editing, soundtrack, and musical score. At the time of its release, the film was one of the highest-grossing Kannada films.
Kantara – PLOT
In 1847, the king made a deal with Panjurli Daiva/Bhoota (an Animist form of spirit worshipped by locals in the Udupi/Mangalore region, some parts of the western ghats of Karnataka, and the Kasargod district of Northern Kerala) to exchange his forest land for Daiva’s peace and happiness and the rights to the local tribes’ lands.
Despite the fact that the Daiva concur, the tribal people warn the monarch that the Daiva family would follow the diety and that any attempt to break their promise would anger the Guliga Daiva. During the Bhoota Kola festival in 1970, the king’s successor, who had become enslaved by greed, demanded that the tribal people return the land, but he ultimately perished at the hands of Daiva’s anger.
The Kambala athlete, Kaadubettu Shiva, with the support of his master and the village’s landlord, Devendra Suttooru, who is the son of the current king’s successor, challenges Muralidhar, a forest inspector, in 1990, who wants the forest land to remain unspoiled. Murali and Shiva are at odds with one another and decide to reject the forest by fencing in the forest land.
They try to persuade the villagers, with the help of Shiva’s girlfriend and a forest guard named Leela, but they refuse and insult them, so they are able to fence the forest land and brutally suppress Shiva and the villagers. Shiva is requested to participate in the Buta Kola celebration in the meantime, but he declines because his father vanished in front of him while carrying out the ceremonies.
While wandering the forest with Devendra to meet the latter’s lover, Shiva encounters the deity that frequently appears in his nightmares, and the two flee in terror. Out of ego, Murali decides to arrest Shiva and his buddies, and he travels to their hiding place with Devendra’s goon Sudhakara. On the other hand, Shiva and her pals hid, but they were later apprehended and put in jail.
When Guruva, Shiva’s cousin and brother, asks Devendra to free Shiva, the latter instructs him to convince the villagers that the Daiva wants them to sell him their land; however, when Guruva refuses, Devendra kills him. It is revealed that Devendra planned to get revenge on the villagers and Daiva for killing his father, and he demanded that they sell him their land.
Devendra finds that Murali has chosen to avenge him for getting the land illegally, leading him to decide to kill him. Shiva contacts Devendra after learning of Guruva’s passing, and Devendra tells a lie about Murali being Guruva’s killer. Shiva is furious and moves to kill Murali, but his companion informs him that Devendra actually killed Guruva. Sudhakara attacks Shiva, but Shiva is able to flee.
Shiva informs the villagers of Devendra’s role in Guruva’s death after learning from Murali about Devendra’s unethical method of gaining the land. In a fierce battle that breaks out as Devendra and his goons invade the village, Shiva suffers severe injuries and eventually passes away, but the Daiva takes control of him and kills Devendra and his goons.
Kantara – CASTING:
- Mohana, played by Pradeep Shetty
- As Devendra’s henchman, Rakshith Ramachandra Shetty
- Garnall Abbu is played by Pushparaj Bollara.
- As Raghu, the Forest Officer, Raghu Pandeshwar
- As Pataki Saheb, Pushparaj Bollur
- Ramdas as Naaru in a spoof
- Father of Guruva is Basuma Kodagu.
- Lacchu played by Ranjan Saju
- As Rajeev Bhandari, Rajeev Shetty
- As Devendra’s son with special needs, Atish Shetty
- Radhakrishna Kumbale, who lives there,
- As a Demigod Interpreter, Naveen Bondel
Cameo roles
- Vinay Biddappa as the King
- Shine Shetty as Devendra’s father.
- King’s wife Pragathi Rishab Shetty
Kantara – PRODUCTION
Development :
The film’s topic, according to director Rishab Shetty, is the fight between nature and humans. He added explicitly that the confrontation between forest authorities and locals in his birthplace of Keradi, Karnataka, in the 1990s served as the film’s inspiration. He went on to say, “This movie is based on stories that have been passed down through centuries and are deeply ingrained in our culture.
It comes from our country and our heritage. During the COVID-19 shutdown in 2021, Shetty had the idea for the story. He explained the meaning of the movie’s title by saying, “This is a tale that takes place in the enigmatic forest of Kantara. The slogan for the movie’s title refers to it as a legend or dhanta kathe. I didn’t want to give the movie a straightforward or obvious name. The word is hardly ever used. Despite having Sanskrit roots, it is also used in Kannada. It is also used in Yakshagana, where we refer to a particularly enigmatic forest as Kantara.
FILMING :
Three time periods were to be shown in the movie: 1890, the 1970s, and the 1990s. The creators enlisted the aid of the tribes living in Keradi, where it was also filmed, as many references found in books were not readily available. The makers “travelled the entire village and visited the tribal community, who supplied details regarding their outfit,” according to costume designer Pragathi Shetty.
She said, “It was difficult for me to persuade the majority of the junior artists from Kundapura to wear tribal attire. We used references when creating Sapthami Gowda’s attire for the forest guard. According to what we heard, the uniform’s colour would vary every year, and everything—including the badges—was personalised. Four nearby forested locales were used for filming, and a set representing the 1990s was also constructed there. Darani Gangeputra, an art director, said: “Aside from this, we built a school, a temple, and a tree house. A lot of natural resources were employed to build the sets.
15 residents of the Keradi village and 35 residents of Bangalore assisted us in our efforts to learn the local way of life. The scene was a community with real areca plantations, a Kambala racetrack, courtyards, and rustic dwellings with cowsheds and hen coops. Before executing the sequence for the movie in early 2022, Shetty practised for four months and studied the nuances of Kambala.
Kantara – MUSIC :
B. Ajaneesh Loknath wrote the movie’s music. Thirty to forty musicians were also brought in. The crew was helped by Mime Ramdas and focused mostly on folklore music, which was performed using Jaanapada songs and traditional instruments. The record and background soundtrack were composed primarily of songs that were typically sung by ordinary people during crop harvest and by local tribes.
Kantara – RELEASED DATE :
On September 30, 2022, Kantara was theatrically released in more than 250 theatres in the state of Karnataka, as well as simultaneously in the US, the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia, among other countries. After the movie’s success in Kannada, the producers said it would be dubbed in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam and released on October 14 (for Hindi) and October 15, respectively, in 2022. (Telugu). Even though it was first stated that the Hindi version would be launched in more than 800 theatres nationwide, a later source indicated that there would actually be 2500 Hindi-language screens.
Kantara – BOX OFFICE :
The first day’s net revenue was predicted to be between 3.5 and 4.25 crores, with a gross of about 6 crores. The first weekend’s overall take was estimated to be between $22.3 (with a net take of roughly $19 crore) and $23 crore. The film made Rs 4 crore on its opening Monday. It was believed that the film made between 24.8 and 25.2 crores in 5 days. On the sixth day of release, the film brought in 8.7 crore.
According to reports, the first week’s gross earnings ranged from Rs 38.50 to Rs 50 crores. In the first week after its publication, there were reportedly more than 19 lakh footfalls throughout Karnataka. In fewer than two weeks, the movie made 60 crore rupees. By the time the film made 60 crore, the estimated number of viewers was in the range of 40 lakh. The film reportedly earned more money domestically on its second Tuesday than both Ponniyin Selvan: I and The Godfather.
Additionally, Kantara made more money than those films in Karnataka. By the end of two weeks, the movie was said to have made over 70 crore rupees in Karnataka alone. The movie reportedly made 80 crore in worldwide box office receipts.