Kantara: Chapter 1 closed near Rs 850 crore, and Rishab Shetty has confirmed a third film

Kantara: Chapter 1 has closed its theatrical run at about Rs 850 crore worldwide, and this month its director collected two awards for it in Melbourne. The Kerala distribution dispute that dominated coverage of the film had in fact been settled nineteen days before it opened.

Rishab Shetty's prequel to his 2022 film was released on 2 October 2025. He directed, co wrote and starred in it, playing four roles, opposite Jayaram, Rukmini Vasanth and Gulshan Devaiah.

The commercial record is now settled. Its public record, compiled from Indian trade trackers, puts the worldwide gross at Rs 850 to 852 crore, the second highest for a Kannada film and the second highest for any Indian film released in 2025. It crossed Rs 100 crore in two days, became the first film to gross more than Rs 250 crore in Karnataka alone, and sold 8.2 million tickets on BookMyShow in its opening week. It was the highest grossing film in the world in that week, at US$53 million. Forbes reported on 17 October 2025 that it had passed US$80 million worldwide in a fortnight.

The Kerala dispute deserves correcting rather than repeating. Onmanorama reported on 10 September 2025 that Prithviraj Productions, the film's Kerala distributor, sought 55 per cent of collections for the first two weeks, above the 50 per cent the Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala applies to films distributed there. FEUOK's president, K Vijayakumar, said the demand breached the terms between distributors and exhibitors. On 13 September, Onmanorama reported that FEUOK lifted its threatened ban after agreeing 55 per cent for the first week and 50 per cent from the second.

That resolution came before the film opened. Accounts published in late October describing Kerala screens as freshly contested, and citing a customary share of 30 to 40 per cent, were wrong on both the timing and the figure.

The piracy problem was real. The Free Press Journal reported that unauthorised copies appeared online within days and that Shetty posted a note asking audiences not to record or share footage from cinemas, writing that doing so "takes away the magic of cinema" and that it "not only harms the film but also the dreams and efforts of thousands who worked tirelessly to bring it to life".

Reviews were stronger than the film's detractors suggested. Rotten Tomatoes records 82 per cent positive from 11 critics with an average of 6.5 out of 10, with praise for the world building and reservations about narrative unevenness. It reached Amazon Prime Video on 31 October 2025 in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, and in Hindi on 27 November.

Recognition has come slowly, as it does for Indian language films outside the Hindi circuit. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences included the film among the 201 features declared eligible for Best Picture consideration at the 2026 Oscars, as Deccan Herald reported. Eligibility is not nomination, and the film was not nominated.

The award it did win came closer to home. At the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne on 14 August 2026, Shetty took Best Director for the film and the festival's Leadership in Cinema award, as Bollywood Hungama and ANI reported. Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra won Best Film, Dulquer Salmaan Best Actor for Kaantha and Kirti Kulhari Best Actress for Full Plate.

Shetty has confirmed the series continues. Deccan Herald reported that he has begun writing Kantara: Chapter 2, which will again move backwards rather than forwards in the chronology, telling the paper that he cannot keep quiet about it. He has two other films ahead of it, Jai Hanuman and The Pride of Bharat: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, which places Chapter 2 some years away.

The open question is whether the Kantara model transfers. An Rs 850 crore result built on coastal Karnataka's ritual traditions, made in Kannada by a director who is also his own lead, is not a formula a studio can commission, and Hombale Films has not said how it intends to try. The Kerala dispute showed what happens when a regional film's success collides with distribution conventions built for smaller crossings. That argument will recur, and next time it will involve a film without Kantara's leverage.