Birthday Special: What makes Rishab Shetty a unique storyteller and actor, especially post 'Kantara'

Actor and filmmaker Rishab Shetty acted in 2022’s Kantara, which he also directed and conceived. It was a runaway success both critically and commercially across all the languages it released in. Rishab proved the strength of good content by bringing an epic tale from the core of India and stamped that Good content can transcend all barriers and is always adored by the audience.

With Kantara, Rishab told a tale that was inspired by Indian culture and befittingly conveyed to a broad audience to educate them about the nation’s traditions and customs. This individual has an extremely keen understanding of storytelling. With Kantara, Rishab told a tale that was influenced by the Panjurli Daiva divinity and displayed a visual grandeur that brought the Kambala tradition and the Bhoota Kola art style to the fore. The clash between humans and nature, which is a recurring theme in Karnataka’s coastal culture and folklore, served as the story’s central theme. Rishab has done a good job with Kantara in terms of telling a story and doing it with human feelings.

Even after the movie was released on OTT, another 50 screens were added in Karnataka because of increased demand for the movie during its successful run at the box office. The movie’s global distribution began with its TULU release in Australia. According to box office results, the movie became the second-highest-grossing Kannada film of all time and the third-highest-grossing Indian movie of 2022.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, when the filmmaker was asked if he expected Kantara will become a global phenomenon, he said, “No, earlier, when I came up with the concept, I always thought that the conflict between humans and nature is a universal conflict. I always think and say that ‘more regional is more universal’. So, this folklore, which narrates the story of agricultural land, shows the universal conflict between two lead characters, Shiva (representative of nature) and Murali (reflection of humans) and added the layers with Bhoota Kola and Devaragni, which is the bridge between human and nature. This belief or ritual is not only in Karnataka but in all corners of the country but with different procedures and sentiments but the core is the same.”

He added, “So, I had that confidence it will have a universal appeal but didn’t imagine that it would go that big and huge. The film has become big because of Kannada people and their love towards the film. They also took their non-Kannadiga friends with them for the film and I am really grateful for their support. In fact, the shows of the film are even increasing in the markets of USA, UAE and Australia.”

In the meantime, he has attracted attention by revealing that the next episode of Kantara will be a prequel. A mastermind manipulates the narrative in this way. While the audience believes Kantara to be the end of the story, Rishab will take them back to the beginning with Kantara’s prequel.