Kannada Cinema in 2025: A Step Forward, Barely

The year is coming to an end, and a question remains to be answered: How did Kannada cinema actually fare at the box office in 2025? Realistically speaking, the year witnessed an unprecedented combination — the success of a tentpole franchise film that turned a coastal Karnataka tradition into a visual spectacle (Rishab Shetty’s Kantara: A Legend Chapter-1, which went on to make ₹645 crores in India, net) and a small-budget gem that wove a story of unmistakeable human kindness with horror and comedy (J.P. Thuminad’s Su From So, which amassed ₹92 crores across India, net). Does this signal clearer skies for an industry long caught in a dry spell, or is one letting recency bias get the better of them?

The Hollywood Reporter India did a box office check on the withering state of the Kannada box office at the half-year mark for the July edition. Have things looked up since then? Actor-filmmaker Raj B. Shetty, who produced Su From So, feels there’s still much to be desired. “I don’t see any change at all,” he says. “Just because two films make money, that doesn’t mean everything has changed in the industry. We are pessimistic and very optimistic, but we need to be logical. If films don’t do well, we blame the audience, saying people aren’t watching in theatres, and if they do well, we feel the industry has suddenly changed.”

Change is neither drastic nor miraculous — it is slow, he cautions.

The two films might be this year’s obvious box office winners, but that doesn’t mean the year was bereft of other compelling stories. The second half of the year gave the audience Punit Rangaswamy’s Elumale, which told the story of an interstate romance, set on the boundary of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, a taut one-night thriller. Kannada filmmaker and producer Tharun Sudhir, who backed the movie, says he bet on the film’s content even though it didn’t have stars. And considering that, he’s happy with the film’s results. “We also got an offer for a Hindi remake. People appreciated the film on social media, and it was all organic. As a production house and a brand, it gave us a very good name and decent money.”

Building Trust

Elumale may not have matched the numbers of Su From So, but it still reinforced belief in good content. Somewhere along the way, the Kannada film audience began developing trust issues, Sudhir notes. “We have been feeding average and below-average films, and he [the viewer] has been spending his money and going back disappointed. So, now he has become very cautious.”

But even with good word-of-mouth, a film needs time in the theatre to grow — precious time that they aren’t often given. “For a film led by new faces to pick up, it might take nine to 10 days, and it might have a slow progression at the box office. But before that, the movie might be thrown out of the multiplex,” says producer Ravichandra AJ of Janani Pictures, a production house which made its mark in 2024 with the Kannada time travel film Blink.

Making a good film today also costs a lot of money, points out Ravichandra, noting that it’s the kind of money that not many new producers or studios have. “We released Blink on eight screens during the first week. We went up to 76 screens over the next seven weeks. For us, it was an incremental rise. A few years back, it was easy to reach our followers [on social media], but now we need to pay for ads and not everyone can afford this. I cannot promote my film the way Hombale [Films] does.”

Chance Has It

Backing from established production houses might ease the process for newcomers, Ravichandra adds. “Production houses aren’t backing independent directors or producers. If they do, the visibility might be more for the content. If you look at Lokah, it was an optimal budget movie, but Dulquer Salmaan [the Malayali actor who produced the film] gave it a wide reach,” he says. “I have completed five years in the industry, where I have completed more than 10 films in Kannada itself, and most of them are content-driven films that have been critically acclaimed. But this isn’t converting into collections.”

Cinema isn’t always a fair business, Shetty points out. “It is always about talent, hard work and luck.” With Indian moviegoers open to consuming films from every language today, a Kannada film today must survive among Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil productions. “We are one or two among the 16 films [across languages]. It is like winning the lottery. The profits are huge, and the losses are, too.” But this isn’t always a bad thing — the hefty competition from films in other languages is a common talking point among fans and spectators. Still, Shetty thinks it’s time to move past this discourse. “Imagine I’m a hotelier opening a fish restaurant in Mangaluru. Do I now intend to close all the other restaurants so that this works better? We need to compete on the merit of quality rather than jingoism. It shouldn’t be ‘watch films because it is in Kannada,’ but ‘watch because it is a good film in Kannada.’”

Su From So, made on a small budget by a debutant director with roots in Tulu theatre, earned rich dividends at the box office. It was an experiment that made Shetty believe audiences are receptive to newcomers. “Even though it’s a mid-budget film, for a filmmaker who started his career with ₹30 lakhs, it’s a huge budget for us,” he says. Shetty has always believed newcomers could make a mark in the testing landscape. And he put this faith to test by producing a film filled with fresh faces. “The best thing about Su From So is that the journey of many smaller films has now taken form.” Among these films, only a few might end up working, but it will at least create more jobs.

G. Venkatesh Reddy of Mukunda 4K Dolby Theatre, a popular single screen in Bengaluru, reaffirms that people will always come back to theatres for good films. “People were waiting for a film like Su From So to celebrate in theatres. It proved that if you make a good film, you can make big numbers. Stars don’t count anymore.” Between the releases of Kantara in 2022 and its prequel in 2025, there have only been three films that made a dent at the box office, he adds — Darshan’s Kaatera (2023), Kichcha Sudeep’s Max (2024) and Su From So.

While this year was better than last year, it’s still not time to celebrate yet, Reddy warns. “We had five decent films this year but had nothing last year. At this rate, it’s going to be difficult for theatres to sustain themselves,” he says. “We were all in the ICU when these films put us back into the ward this year. But we haven’t been discharged from the hospital yet.”

Reddy bats for government subsidies to theatre owners to help recover costs. “Instead of giving subsidies to production houses, the government should give subsidies to theatres. Once they do that, theatre owners will be interested in running them for another 10 years. We had 1,200 single screens in Karnataka at one point, but that has now come down to 400.” In another 10 years, not many single screens might be around to survive the drought, he adds.

Darshan's The Devil was released earlier this month, raking in ₹28.25Cr India net. There is perhaps still some hope left for the year that hasn’t ended. Two more important films will see the light of day in December: Raj B. Shetty, Upendra and Shiva Rajkumar’s 45, and Kichcha Sudeep’s Mark. “I always look at things from the perspective of an exhibitor more than anybody else,” says Shetty. “We don’t know if these films will do well or not, but it will be those films that will give a minimum guarantee to exhibitors. These films might bring more money to the industry, which I see as a change.”

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