Five of more than 200 Kannada movies made it to Rs 100-crore club in 2022

Sandalwood has had an eventful year with 'pan-India' success of films like KGF Chapter 2 and Kantara, which brought the focus on Kannada films. The churn-out in 2022 was almost on the lines of the pre-pandemic days, with nearly four new movies hitting the silver screen every week.
While Yash-starrer KGF1 was the only movie to have crossed the coveted Rs 100-crore box-office mark before 2020, five more films - James, KGF2, 777 Charlie, Vikrant Rona and Kantara - joined the bandwagon in 2022.Though these are not official numbers, the reality may not be very wide off the mark. Among these, KGF 2 had a worldwide gross of over Rs 1,000 crore and Kantara crossed the Rs 400-crore mark. These are numbers that were unimaginable for Kannada films until they happened. But the devil, as they say, is in the details.
"For starters, the percentage of successful films has not seen any noticeable increase. It is less than 10% as usual. For every successful film, there are 10 others which were loss-making ventures for producers. For every film that was bought by a satellite broadcaster or an OTT platform, there are 10 others which remain unsold," said Umesh Banakar, president of the Karnataka Film Producers' Association (KFPA).
KGF 2 and Kantara, two of the biggest hits, not only in Kannada but across all industries, hide the fact that the rest of the 200 Kannada films of the year put together cannot match their numbers.
Significant jump
In terms of numbers, 2022 saw the release of 202 films which seems to be a significant jump from the previous year's 104. However, 2020 and 2021 were the pandemic years which have to be gauged separately. In 2018, Sandalwood was the No. 1 industry in the country with 243 films originally made in Kannada being released. This was a bigger number than Hindi and Telugu, the traditional leaders in numbers, that year. "The demand from television and OTT platforms for Kannada films remains the same. But the number of films is piling up," said Banakar.
The year also saw many debutant directors garnering praise and appreciation for unique attempts.
Sagar Puranik's debut Dollu won the national award for the best Kannada film. Koli Taal by Abhilash Shetty, Kamblihula by Navan Sreenivas, Wheelchair Romeo by G Nataraj, Dharani Mandala Madyadolage by Sridhar Shikaripuar, Thurtu Nirgama by Hemanth Kumar, Khasagi Putagalu by Santhosh Srikantappa, and the last release of the year, Padavi Poorva, were all praised for their content-driven efforts. However, most had to be content with just appreciation from critics as the box office told a different story.
"The industry is in a very irrational situation. On the one hand, you have a few films garnering everything at the box office. On the other hand, even good films that win appreciation are unable to earn back their investment. We find ourselves in a skewed market where good content is failing. Not every film needs to become a blockbuster, but if good films are unable to find buyers and audience, it means something is fundamentally wrong," said director-producer Guru Deshpande.