Rishab Shetty's Kantara wreaked havoc at the box office last year. Based on Tulu mythology, the film won critical as well as commercial success. While it is known to all that the multilingual drama is being planned to be a franchise, Rishab confirmed on Monday that the next in the order will be Kantara's prequel. It was earlier announced that Kantara 2 will go on floors around June this year and Rishab started working on the film's initial stages.
As Kantara completed 100 days, Rishab called for a celebration. On the occasion, the writer, actor, and director of the film spoke about the prequel and said, "We are very pleased and thankful to the audience who had shown immense love and support to Kantara and taking the journey ahead, with the blessing of almighty Daiva the film has successfully completed 100 days and I would like to take this opportunity to announce the prequel of Kantara. What you have seen is actually Part 2, Part 1 will come next year. The idea has been flashed into my mind while I was shooting for Kantara because the history of Kantara has more depth to it, and currently, if the writing part is concerned we are in the middle of digging into more details. As the research is still progressing, it would be very early to reveal details about the film."
Producer Vijay Kiragandur told, "Kantara introduced the audience to a new cinema altogether and we would love to sustain and in fact boost the rage that the film has created among the audience on the screens by announcing the sequel, as the film has now completed its 100 days. Rishab and our team have been working on the story rigorously as the film has many more things to tell to the audience while opening the back story of Kantara and we can just guarantee that the sequel of Kantara is going to be more massive and grand than before."
In an interview with an international publication, producer Vijay revealed, "Rishab is writing the story now and has gone to the forests of coastal Karnataka with his writing associates for two months to conduct research for the film. He plans to start shooting in June, as a portion of the shoot requires the rainy season, and our intention is to give the film a pan-India release in April or May next year."
Kantara, co-starring Sapthami Gowda, Kishore and others, released in Kannada originally. It then got versions in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.