Kantara Chapter1 OTT viewership in South opening week is way behind Lokah. Lokah Hindi has been released but Kanata Hindi OTT has not got a release. Taking that Kantara a Kannada film that dubed into South and Hindi languages and is termed the highest-grossing Indian film of the year worldwide with Rs. 799 crore after the 5th weekend, ahead of Rs. 786 crore of Chhaava. It will be crossing Rs. 800 crore worldwide in no time, OTT reception in South is a surprise. Kantara Chapter 1 performed very strongly in Tamil Nadu right from day 1, and it even impacted Dhanush’s Idli Kadai, and it also joined the 70 Cr gross club, which is almost the closing collections for the film.
This is the
6th non-Tamil film to collect more than 70 Cr gross in
Tamil Nadu. Baahubali 2 is the first one to do this, followed by KGF 2, RRR,
Avatar 2, Pushpa 2, and now Kantara Chapter 1, which performs superbly in Tamil
Nadu. The film had a sort of crash in South
India after digital release, with a drop from the previous weekend being around
70 per cent. That is despite a big holiday on Saturday in Karnataka. Without
this holiday, the drop would have been closer to 75 per cent. The hold was
better in Hindi at around 60 per cent, but even this was a bit higher than
normal.
Two big
blockbusters of the year, Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra and Kantara: Chapter 1,
were released on the same day on Jio Hotstar and Prime Video, respectively.
While the former is a superhero film headlined by Kalyani Priyadarshan, the
latter is a folklore action drama spearheaded by Rishab Shetty.
Lokah has
now overtaken Kantara: Chapter 1 in the opening weekend in the digital space.
According to the latest report in Ormax, Lokah registered 3.8 million views
(Data considered between October 27 to November 2), whereas Kantara: Chapter 1
garnered 3.5 million views in the same timeframe.
Kantara:
Chapter 1 is yet to be released in Hindi on OTT. On the other hand, Lokah is
streaming in multiple languages, including Hindi, and that could be a key
reason behind the superhero film’s dominance on the OTT charts.
Bollywood Hungama has learned that the team of the film has locked a title. A source told us, “The name of the film is indeed Varanasi. It is said that the title rights were with somebody, but S S Rajamouli’s team reached out and secured the rights.”
The source further said, “It is an apt title as per the story of the film. Hence, they were very keen on naming their film Varanasi.”
Reports also state that a grand announcement event will be held on November 15 in Ramoji Rao Film City, Hyderabad. Along with S S Rajamouli, Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra and Prithviraj Sukumaran, the others from the team of the film are expected to be present, including Oscar-winning music director M M Keeravani. It is reported that fans will get a chance to attend the launch event and that the event will be live streamed on JioHotstar.
- A smaller production house, "Ramabhakta Hanuman Creations," headed by director CH Subba Reddy, claims to have already registered the title Varanasi for their own film. They have released an official poster with the title and expressed their intention to proceed with their project, creating a title clash.
- The Conflict: The smaller production house has challenged Rajamouli's team, demanding they either change their film's title or compensate them. It is currently a matter of industry speculation whether Rajamouli's team will negotiate, use a title extension (e.g., Varanasi: The Untold), or if this is part of a promotional strategy.
