On October 10, Superstar Rajinikanth’s big-ticket film Vettaiyan will release in theatres and strangely enough, social media is quiet with regard to one aspect. Normally, when a big film from across the border is released in Karnataka, and irrespective of whether the makers have made the effort to dub it in Kannada or not, there is a demand for the same from some quarters. “Serve in my language”, is the call, but more often than not, this version contributes only a miniscule portion to the overall box office collection of these films, owing to which distributors and exhibitors don’t prioritise the Kannada version.

Screen allocation of Vettaiyan Kannada in Bangalore

In Bengaluru, which is a major market for “other language” films, at last count, Vettaiyan had been allotted a sum total of 5 screens and 13 shows across these theatres for the Kannada version, as per ticket aggregator BookMyShow. On the other hand, the Telugu version got 21 screens with 79 shows. The Hindi version has just as many screens and shows as Kannada, with the Tamil original, obviously allotted countless shows that we are not even getting into.

Why is it that Kannada dubbing and a widespread release is not on the agenda of distributors? For instance, during the release of RRR, even though Ram Charan and Jr NTR had both dubbed for the Kannada version, the distributor claimed that there was no demand for the version from exhibitors or audiences.

Rajinikanth’s last film Jailer is cited as an example that releasing a Kannada version widely does not make financial sense. Jailer was distributed by Jayanna Films and the Kannada version was given adequate screens, but managed only Rs 5 crore lifetime collection, as against the Rs 70 crore odd from the Tamil original.

Adipurush’s Kannada version had got a wide release, which collected Rs 2 crore, a fair number for a film that did not do well overall.

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