(Image source from: Twitter.com/shetty_rishab)
In September 2022, Rishabh Shetty's Kantara broke many records at the Sandalwood box office. The film grossed over 40 billion rupees worldwide against a budget of around 20 billion rupees. Although it failed to break the world record of KGF: Chapter 2, Yash outperformed it in the Karnataka domestic market. Immediately after Kantara, the Rishab Shetty-Hombale Films duo announced a prequel to Kantara titled Kantara A Legend - Chapter 1 and booked a slot for December 2024. Now it has been announced that a major digital deal will be signed after the film's theatrical release. Kantara A Legend – Chapter 1 is scheduled to release on Amazon Prime Video in early 2024. The film is said to have been sold to the streaming giant for Rs 125 million. Apart from Kannada, the film will be released in multiple languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and even Malayalam. Kantara The Legend – Chapter 1 will be very similar to Kantara, it will not be a high budget film but a high concept film.
The digital rights more than offset the film's budget after its theatrical release. The worldwide screening rights of Kantara The Legend - Chapter 1 are basically a win for the film. It is noteworthy that the worldwide share of Kantara's first film was around 200 crores. If Kantara The Legend - Chapter 1 gets the same reviews as the first episode, the sky is the limit. Kantara as a franchise will not end with Kantara Legends – Chapter 1. Rishabh Shetty and Hombale Films are planning to make this franchise one of the biggest franchises in the country. The response to the December 2024 release shows how big this film franchise will actually be. Cost-controlled film production allowed producers to produce sequels in a relatively short period of time. Releasing a film early can increase viewer interest. We've seen in the past that the longer a sequel takes to be produced and released, the lower its popularity.
