‘Copying ‘Kantara’ will destroy Bollywood’

‘Kantara’ is one of the biggies that took the Indian box office by storm this year. A masterpiece that came from the Kannada film industry, which has been an underdog over the years in the realm of Indian cinema. Set in a rural backdrop, the film is shouldered by every section in the country irrespective of region and language.

Makers had no intention to release it as a pan-India film. Nor did they release it in South Indian languages in one go. Starting humbly first in Kannada, ‘Kantara’ spread like a blaze prompting the makers to release it in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi.

The film with a budget of a paltry Rs 15 crore, has now gone on to make cash registers ringing within months. With a whopping Rs 400 crore, the film pushed filmmakers into deep thinking. Why can’t we make such films? – is the question that is bothering filmmakers across industries.

Meanwhile, prominent director Anurag Kashyap felt that it is incorrect to emulate stories that come from regional languages. He felt that the current trend of copying regional films has destroyed Bollywood. Recalling the words of Marathi director Nagraj Manjule about how the film ‘Sairat’ had destroyed the Marathi film industry, Anurag said the trend of people following a film that scored a success at the box office would destroy the whole industry.

The filmmaker said that Bollywood will definitely take the brunt of emulating western films. Since there is pan-India fever gripping film producers elsewhere, the success rate is quite less. Films like ‘Pushpa’ and ‘Kantara’ might have been a massive hit, but they do not work in Bollywood, he pointed out. Bollywood doesn’t need pan-India stories at this juncture, it needs freshness in every story they want to resurrect on the screen, he added.