With 256 Kannada films and 282 releases statewide in 2025, the industry posted a success rate of just 0.78%; Kantara: Chapter 1 and Su from So were hits while Darshan’s Devil and Kichcha Sudeep’s Mark underperformed
Kannada cinema, now in its ninety-first year, ends 2025 with two milestones that illustrate both its scale and its struggle. The industry has logged 256 releases this year, taking the cumulative total past 6,000 films, the highest annual output in Kannada film history. It marks a decisive volume surge for an industry that had spent much of the first half of the year gasping for content, with theatres reporting a drought of new titles. The rebound in the latter half was unmistakable: a flood of releases, new production ventures, and experiments across genres and platforms.
Fittingly, the year opened as it began the previous one: with superstar Sudeep. After closing 2024 with Max, he returned in 2025 with Mark, bookending this growth spurt with marquee visibility even as the year’s box office fortunes were shaped elsewhere. To appreciate the scale of 2025’s benchmark, one must look back. Kannada cinema began with Sati Sulochana, the first talkie in 1934. It took 26 years to touch the 100-film mark. By 1976, the industry crossed 500. The 2000-film milestone arrived in 1985, and remarkably, over 4,000 titles have been produced in just the past 25 years alone, reflecting an exponential curve driven by digital filmmaking, lower entry barriers, and multi-platform distribution.
“Leave aside the question of profit, loss and quality. The reason for the increase in the number of productions and drop in success rate is really an issue to be studied in depth,” says film analyst Chetan Nadiger. His remark captures the paradox at the heart of this year: more films than ever, fewer successes than the industry has historically known.
Surprising success of Su from So
One quiet transformation in counting methodology explains part of the surge. Until a few years ago, industry figures were drawn solely from theatrical releases. Today, the ledger includes films made in Tulu, Kodava, Konkani, Banjara and Are Bashe, along with OTT and satellite premieres. By this wider tally, Karnataka saw 282 releases in 2025, of which 256 were Kannada theatrical titles. But what alarms trade watchers is the plummeting rate of hits. Two decades ago, Kannada cinema operated with a success rate of around 10 percent. In 2025, it has fallen to 0.78 percent, a number that starkly exposes how output is no longer matched by revenue or audience traction.
Among the year’s few standout performers were Rishabh Shetty’s Kantara Chapter One and J P Thuminad’s Su from So; the latter was a surprise breakout. Su from So, shorthand for Sulochana from Someshwara, arrived without heavy expectation, but its horror-comedy pitch resonated beyond its modest scale to register one of the year’s only dependable theatrical runs. Two hits in a field of 256 is the symptom of a larger churn: More productions, more new voices, more linguistic and digital diversification; but also fragmentation of audience attention, inflated production pipelines, and an increasingly unforgiving box office.
Also read: Tamil cinema yearender 2025: A year of debutant directors, diversity of voices
While the Kantara team has publicly claimed collections of Rs 883 crore so far, Su from So, produced on an investment of Rs 3 crore, is reported to have grossed Rs 120 crore at the box office, according to industry sources. Together, Kantara – Chapter One and Su from So are estimated to have generated close to Rs 800 crore in business for Kannada cinema. It is noteworthy, however, that star-driven films such as Devil (Darshan), Mark (Kichcha Sudeep) and 45 (directed by Arjun Janya and starring Shivarajkumar, Upendra and Raj B. Shetty) are still struggling to recover their investment, industry insiders say.
“Among these three year-end releases, Devil’s performance is poor inn box office,” says an office-bearer of Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce on condition of anonymity. Devil, which was produced with an investment of Rs 30 crore, succeeded in collecting Rs 15 crore, according to industry sources. The alleged star-war between Sudeep and Darshan has been attributed for this outcome. Mark is fighting against all odds to recover investment, as 45, with three stars, was released simultaneously.
Experimental filmmakers make a mark
The Kannada cinema faced various controversies in 2025. The year saw repeated stand-offs between film personalities and public sentiment, often spilling beyond cinema into cultural politics. Singer Sonu Nigam’s refusal to perform a Kannada song at a public event triggered sharp criticism, ending only after he issued an unconditional apology to the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce. Similarly, actor Kamal Haasan’s remarks about the antiquity of the Kannada language fuelled widespread anger, resulting in the non-release of his film Thug Life in Karnataka. Ranveer Singh faced backlash when he mimicked the sacred Daiva from Kantara during an IFFI Goa appearance, referring to it as a “female ghost.” The gesture invited protests from the Tulu community and social media outrage.
Meanwhile, the push for a uniform ticket pricing policy continued unresolved, as the Karnataka High Court stayed the government order, leaving exhibitors, producers and audiences in an uncertain holding pattern. The year 2025 also saw a clutch of films operating outside the mainstream grammar, with new ideas and issues. Works such as Nimma Vasthugalige Neeve Javaabdaararu (You Are Responsible for Your You Own Luggage), Pappi, Hebbuli Cut, Nodidavaru Enantare (What People Think Who Watched), Kite Brothers, Veera Chandrahasa, Anamadheya Ashok Kumar, Mithya, Bili Chukki, Halli Hakki, Mankuthimmana Kagga, Timmana Mottegalu, Padmagandhi, Kapata Nataka Sutradhari, and Scene Kaddi broadened thematic scope. Of these, a handful of experimental films — Maadeva, Brat, Ekka, Jai and Veera Chandrahasa — earned appreciation.
In contrast, second-tier stars such as Duniya Vijay, Sharan, Prajwal, Yogi, Vijay Raghavendra, Krishna, Komal, Dharma, Keerthiraj, Prithvi Ambar and Vinay Rajkumar were unable to translate visibility into box office momentum. A new bunch of filmmakers, however, made a mark: J.P. Tumminadu (Su from So), Puneet Rangaswamy (Elumale), Bhimarao (Hebbuli Cut), Kuldeep Karyappa (Nodidavaru Enantare) and Veeren Sagar Bagade (Kite Brothers) — each finding a niche following and confidence from distributors. Veteran directors — S. Narayan, Yogaraj Bhat, M.D. Sridhar and Nagashekar — tried to make a comeback with Maruta, Manada Kadalu, Jamboo Circus and Sanju Weds Geeta 2. Festival and art segments framed Baraguru Ramachandrappa’s Tayi Kasturba Gandhi and Suchendra Prasad’s Padmagandhi as the year’s notable non-mainstream entries.
Unavailability of stars
The year was also marked by the loss of several senior figures, casting a long shadow over celebrations of output. Kannada cinema mourned the passing of B. Saroja Devi, actor-comedian Umesh, Rakesh Poojari, Bank Janardhan, art director-actor Dinesh Mangaluru, Sarigama Viji, Yashwant Sardeshpande, Raju Talikote, Chenne Gowda (Gaddappa of Thithi), Harish Rai, A.T. Raghu and filmmaker Murali Mohan.
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Compounding the industry’s imbalance was the silence of its biggest stars. Yash, Rakshit Shetty, Ganesh, Dhruva Sarja, Sri Murali and Ninasam Satish did not deliver new releases in 2025, while leading directors including Tarun Sudheer, Santhosh, Prashanth Neel, Pavan Kumar and Duniya Suri remained absent from screens. Industry observers point to these missing tentpoles — and the parallel fall in native-content blockbusters — as central to the collapse in success rates. The female face of the year was Rukmini Vasanth, whose performance in Kantara-1 continued to hold visibility. Six older films returned to theatres, but only Puneet Rajkumar’s Appu and Darshan’s Chingari struck a chord with audiences. Darshan’s Devil, filmed during his bail period, became a centre of speculation owing to the legal battles and long stretches of absence from the public eye.
The thinning of the Kannada slate can be attributed to pan-Indian casting, which has now become a norm. Many Kannada actors spent the year working outside the home industry. “Kannada filmmakers are not getting dates of their stars,” a trade observer notes. Sudeep’s Mark — directed by Tamil filmmaker Vijay Kartikeya — now has a sequel underway with his calendar already locked. Yash is filming Toxic with Malayalam director Geetu Mohan Das; Rishabh Shetty has signed Jai Hanuman with Prashanth Varma and Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj with Sandip Singh; Shivarajkumar is working on Dad and Gummadi Narsaiah with Telugu directors Anil Kanneghanti and Parameshwara Himrale. National Award-winning Kannada filmmaker Mansore (Manjunatha Somakeshava Reddy), known for films like Harivu and Nathicharami, is set to debut in Bollywood with Juliet, further widening the talent pipeline flowing outward.
Looking ahead: What 2026 holds
Three Kannada films — Su from So, Vanya and Imbu (Tulu) — were selected for the Indian Panorama at the 56th International Film Festival of India. Speaking to The Federal, Raj B. Shetty, who backed J. P. Tumminadu in the making of Su from So, says, “The film was already a commercial success. But being screened in the Indian Panorama section makes the moment more special. This selection made me think even more deeply about the kind of content we are creating.” Meanwhile, Anooya Swamy’s debut short film Pankkaja was selected for screening at the Sundance Film Festival, the first-ever Kannada short film by a Bengaluru-based director to be showcased at the prestigious platform. At the same time, highest national award recipient P. Sheshadri directed Ruby Cube, a film addressing present-day social themes and the strain on human relationships due to rising divorce cases.
Also read: Top movies of 2025: From Kantara to Homebound, films that defined the year
The closure of Urvashi Theatre signalled the end of single-screen culture in Bengaluru. For many, Urvashi remained the last living reminder of a golden era — its cavernous hall, thunderous sound, massive screen and packed audiences offering an experience multiplexes could not replicate. This comes after the shutdown of other iconic theatres such as Cauvery. The trend reflects the continuing decline of single screens in the face of multiplex expansion and OTT dominance. Meanwhile, Karnataka’s government-owned OTT platform, proposed at Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFES), is scheduled to launch by year-end. Filmmakers and cinephiles are now debating what it should host and how it should be run.
“For years, despite its rich storytelling tradition, the Kannada film industry was overlooked on OTT platforms. Kannada content was largely treated as an afterthought — a spillover from television or cinema and often limited to dubbed content. But 2025 marks a turning point. With multiple original Kannada web series emerging and a regional platform investing in homegrown stories, Kannada cinema is no longer simply entering OTT — it is carving a new identity. A government platform, if managed well, can benefit both creators and audiences,” says Mahaboob Pasha, Chairman of Kanteerava Studio
This year also coincided with a milestone in Kannada film history. Fifty years ago, in 1975, classics such as Chomana Dudi, Hamsageethe, Pallavi Anupallavi and Dr. Rajkumar’s Dari Tappida Maga, Trimurthi, Puttanna Kanagal’s Shubha Mangala, Dwarakish’s Kalla Kulla and several other prominent films were released. However, the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy failed to commemorate the golden jubilee of national award-winning films Chomana Dudi, Hamsageethe, Pallavi and others, disappointing cinephiles. Bengaluru celebrated its link with Sholay, the Bollywood classic filmed among the granite outcrops of Ramanagara. “The ‘Yeh Dosti’ bike, now with an IAS officer, still evokes nostalgia,” notes Nadiger.
Looking ahead, 2026 appears promising for Kannada cinema with the possible release of 14 major films, including Yash’s Toxic. Other projects in the pipeline include: KD by Jogi Prem starring Dhruva Sarja; Land Lord with Duniya Vijay; Billa Ranga Baashaa featuring Sudeep; 666 Operation Dream Theatre starring Shivarajkumar; Bhargava with Upendra; Karavali starring Prajwal Devaraj; Mango Pachcha headlined by Sudeep’s cousin; Ugrayudham featuring Sri Murali; Criminal with Dhruva Sarja; Father starring Prakash Raj; Daiji by Ramesh Arvind; Pinaka featuring Ganesh; and City Lights starring Duniya Vijay. “These films are expected to take entertainment to another level,” says Ba. Na. Subrahmanya, National Award-winning film writer.
