Rishab Shetty’s ‘Kantara: Chapter 1’, one of the most anticipated films in Indian cinemas, hit theatres on October 2 and took a massive opening considering its budget. The early trends witnessed poor turn-out for the morning shows. However, with positive word-of-mouth from the premiere shows, the bookings picked up pace during the evening and night shows.

According to the tracking website, Sacnilk, ‘Kantara: Chapter 1’ is estimated to have earned Rs 60 crore nett (gross minus taxes) in India on its release day. Considering the modest budget of approximately Rs 125 crore for a film of this scale, the Day 1 collection is phenomenal.

Going by the estimates, ‘Kantara: Chapter 1’ is said to have raked in around Rs 19-21 crore nett in the Hindi belt. The number could witness an increase depending on the single screens. The Rishab Shetty-starrer has had the second-largest opening for a Kannada film in the Hindi market, trailing Yash’s ‘KGF: Chapter 2’, which registered a massive Rs 54 crore nett.

The Kannada version of the film had an overall occupancy of 88.13 per cent in theatres on Thursday. The Telugu, Hindi and Tamil dubbed versions of the film registered an occupancy of 75.34 per cent, 29.84 per cent and 71.42 per cent, respectively.

‘Kantara: Chapter 1’ is a prequel to the film of the 2022 film of the same name, written, directed and acted by Rishab Shetty. The period mythological drama also features Rukmini Vasanth, Jayaram and Gulshan Devaiah in pivotal roles.

Produced by Hombale Films, the film has music composed by Ajaneesh Loknath, cinematography by Arvind S Kashyap and editing by Suresh Mallaiah.

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