RGV hails box office performance of 'Kantara', mocks big-budget filmmakers

Bengaluru, Oct 18: Well-known filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, who is known for his outspoken attitude, has praised Kannada film 'Kantara' and its performance at the box office. He has also taken potshots at the big-budget filmmakers, indicating their struggle to strike gold at the box office.

"Hey @shetty_rishab thank you for the wonderful lesson called #Kantara All Film industry people will need to pay you tuition fees🙏🙏🙏, [sic]" he appreciated in a tweet.

Calling Rishab Shetty "a devil", the filmmaker, popularly known as RGV, said, "Thanks to the DEVIL called @shetty_rishab all big budget film makers will now suddenly keep waking up in the night from the nightmare collections of #Kantara ,Like how Shiva keeps waking up to Guliga Daiva, [sic]"

According to the Telugu filmmaker, Shetty has destroyed the myth that only mega-budget film will pull the audience to theatres. "The @Shetty_Rishab destroys the myth in film people that only mega budget films will pull people into theatres .. #Kantara will be a major lesson for decades to come, [sic]" he added.

"In the film industry now , @Shetty_Rishab is like a Shiva multiplied by Guliga Daiva and the villains are the 300 cr , 400 cr , 500 cr budget film makers who are being killed by a heart attack called #Kantara collections, [sic]" he concluded.

Rishab Shetty's 'Kantara' has come out with flying colors at the box office. It has minted over Rs 120 crore at the worldwide box office.

Notably, it has earned around Rs 15 crore in Andhra and Telangana while collecting about Rs 12 crore in the Hindi version.

RGV's comments are seen as a wake-up call for the filmmakers, who spend crores of rupees on the film when there has been hesitancy to come to theatres in the post-pandemic era and facing competition from OTT platforms.