After the lull of Covid years, Sandalwood back on track

Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru

On the second Friday of June, Sandalwood is breaching the 100 film mark this year. The mid-year numbers are in tune with the pre-Covid years where Kannada films had breached the 200 mark for two consecutive years.

After the lull of the Covid years where the numbers dropped to 73 in 2020 and 104 in 2021, the industry seems to be back on track.

 But the numbers don’t tell the full picture. Of the 100 films released this year, only a handful have managed to pull audiences to the theatres. The films which saw footfalls in theatres this year are Kranti, Hoysala, Raghavendra Stores, Shivaji Surathkal and Daredevil Musthafa, begging the question where the audiences have disappeared after last year’s blockbuster hit Kantara.

Kantara, which was released in September 2022, became one of the most successful Kannada films of all time.

However, the Kannada audiences have almost abandoned theatres in 2023. Producer and distributor Jayanna, said, “It is a mystery. We had the IPL and the Assembly Elections together. There was a flow of money in people’s hands. But audiences have ignored Kannada films and we do not know the reason. Even films that received good reviews were unable to pull people to theatres. Those that did get an audience were not exactly super hits. T h e y have only managed to safeguard the producers’ investments.”

In the rather dull year so far, Jayanna points to the absence of star vehicles.

“Except for Kranti starring Darshan, we haven’t had a single film of the big stars. Only star power can bring audiences to theatres whatever the quality of films. If there is a regular stream of big star films, audiences will have a reason to visit theatres often. When we have a huge gap such as this, the audience will stay away from all films,” he said.

The distributor points to the widening gap between the release of star films. The passing away of Puneeth Rajkumar has been a blow to the industry. He was one star who had promised to work in at least two films every year.

Sudeep hasn’t started work on a new film (barring a guest appearance in Kabza) after the release of Vikrant Rona in July 2022.

Yash has not announced his next film since the release of his last film KGF 2 in April last year.

Dhruva Sarja’s last film Pogaru, released in February 2021 and the release date of his next film Martin, is yet to be announced. Duniya Vijay’s last Kannada release was Salaga in October 2021.