Rishab Shetty’s ‘Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1’ achieved remarkable box office success, becoming a major hit. However, its early OTT release, just 29 days after theatrical debut, has impacted its collections. Despite its potential to become one of India’s biggest films, the film’s box office earnings have seen a significant dip, raising questions about the strategy.
Rishab Shetty’s Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1 has already set benchmarks for all future films across industries, it has become the biggest film of 2025 and 7th biggest hit of Indian cinema. And the film did all this in less than a month of its release in cinema halls but despite such great numbers- the film was released on OTT on 29th day of its release. The sudden decision has left everyone wondering. The southern language films usually have a 4 week window between its release and its OTT release but there are always exceptions. Prabhas’s Kalki 2898 AD with Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan had hit the theaters on 27th June but its OTT release happened only on 28th August- a full 8 weeks after the release, same was the case with Dulquer Salmaan and Kalyani Priyadarshan’s Lokah: Chapter 1- Chandra. And now the effect of early OTT release is showing on the box office collection of Kantara 2 which is still in the theaters, On 33rd day of its release the film minted a little over Rs 1 crore- its lowest ever collection. The film has been released on OTT in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam- with Hindi film releasing only after 8 weeks of its theatrical release. Breaking down the Rs 1 crore collection- Hindi version contributed Rs 54 lakh while Kannada version added Rs 27 lakh and rest coming from remaining languages. The film had the potential to cross Rs 640 crore and become the 6th biggest hit of Indian cinema and displace Shah Rukh Khan and Atlee’s Jawan but that now seems like an impossible feat. Kantara 2 features Rishab Shetty alongside Rukmini Vasanth, Gulshan Devaiah and Jayaram. The franchise will return for the third part which was announced in the climax of the second part but it will take a few years to go on floors as Rishab has few big projects as an actor in his hands.
