Kantara's star Rishab Shetty has said that he cannot imagine any Bollywood actor playing his role in the film, saying it would be impossible for him to explain the role to them.
Rishab Shetty not only directed Kantara but starred in it as well. The Kannada film has been a sleeper hit, beating several Hindi films with larger budgets at the box office. In a recent interview, when Rishab was asked about which Bollywood actor could play his role in a potential Hindi remake of the film, the actor-director said he can’t imagine anybody from the industry being able to do it.
Kantara is a thriller rooted in the folklore of coastal Karnataka, integrating issues of land politics and man vs nature with the faith around local demigods called Daivas. The film has been critically well received and commercially successful as well. In a month since its release, it has become one of the highest-grossing Indian films of 2022 and the second-highest-grossing Kannada film ever.
In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Rishab was asked which Bollywood actor would be able to reprise his role if the film were to be remade in Hindi. Rishab replied, “I don’t know. I can’t think of anyone because I don’t know how I would explain this to another actor. I am emotionally connected to the Daiva Kola sequence. I can’t even explain how I did it myself because it’s an emotional and spiritual journey. You have to believe in it. We have seen all this since we were kids.”
Rishab clarified that he was not casting aspersions on Bollywood actors’ talent though. “There are a lot of good actors here, but this character of Shiva, I can’t imagine anyone playing it,” he added.
Kantara was originally released in Kannada on September 30. The initial positive reaction to the film across India led the makers to released dubbed versions in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam two weeks later. As of October 31, the film has made over ₹250 crore worldwide. The dubbed versions alone account for over ₹50 crore of this figure.
