This year, Karnataka will celebrate Kannada Cinema Day — celebrated annually on March 3 to mark the release of the first Kannada film in 1934 — with the screening of a recent Tamil hit dubbed in Kannada.
This is significant because the Kannada film industry had so far refused to allow dubbing of other language films, and Tamil star Ajith Kumar’s 2015 box office hit Yennai Arindhal will become the first big-budget commercial success from another language to be dubbed and released in Kannada. The film, whose dubbed version is titled Satyadev IPS , also stars Anushka Shetty and Trisha Krishnan.
“Considering the response to the trailer, we are planning to release the movie in a minimum of 60 screens across the State, including Bengaluru. Over 1.87 lakh viewers watched the trailer. Songs like Male Hani Mattali , Chali Chali Chittali are already popular. Radios channels will start playing the songs in a day or two,” said G. Krishnamurthy, producer of dubbed version and general secretary of Kannada Film Chamber of Commerce (KAFCC).
Legal battle
The reason the Ajith-starrer could be dubbed is because the Kannada film industry lost a prolonged legal battle, in 2014, at the Competition Commission of India and had to relent and allow screening of dubbed films, a trend that’s successful in India.
The opening of doors to dubbed films could mean that other big hits, especially from other south Indian States and Bollywood, would also flood Karnataka theatres soon.
In the pipeline
In the pipeline are films like Bahaubali 2 , which could become the first simultaneously Kannada-dubbed release, and another Ajith-starrer, Aarambham .
KAFCC president Krishne Gowda said K.V. Vijayendra Prasad, the story writer for Bahubali 2 , was strongly in favour of dubbing and said Kannada would be part of a pan-south India release deal for distributors. Talks over acquiring the rights for Bahubali 2 are still on.
“The distributor will release the film in different languages based on the demography,” Mr. Gowda said.
