KGF and Kantara producer Hombale Films to invest £300 million in Indian film industry

Hombale Films, the production house behind Kannada blockbusters “KGF” and “Kantara”, aims to invest £30o million crore in the Indian entertainment industry in the coming five years.

Vijay Kiragandur, the founder of Hombale Films, said the company is planning to produce movies in all southern languages. “We intend to invest Rs 3,000 crore for the next five years in the entertainment industry in India. We believe the entertainment industry will grow more and more. It will be a mixed bag of stories. Every year there will be five-six films including one event movie. As of now, we have plans of making movies in all south languages,” Kiragandur told PTI in an interview.

The goal, the producer said, is to reach out to a wider audience through culturally rooted stories. "We want to make something that is liked by the global audience, but we want it to be rooted in our culture and tradition. We want to leave something behind for the younger generation. We also want to contribute towards the Indian economy,” he added.

In order to expand their viewership, the Bangalore-based production banner has decided to join hands with writers and filmmakers from the Hindi film industry.  Without divulging details, Hombale Films partner Chaluve Gowda said they have roped in two leading writers from Bollywood to pen movies for the banner.

“We are working with a couple of writers in Hindi... Once the story is ready then we will look for directors and then actors. We first concentrate on writers because they are the ones who create the story,” he said.

The company's upcoming movie slate includes pan-India Prabhas-starrer “Salaar”, set to be released on September 28. The action-adventure film is directed by Prashanth Neel. They are also backing the multilingual film “Dhoomam”, the Kannada action movie “Bagheera” and the Tamil film “Raghuthata” with Keerti Suresh.

The banner is launching Yuva Rajkumar, grandson of superstar Rajkumar, in one of their upcoming titles. The film will be directed by Santhosh Anandram and it will be released by the end of 2023.

“For the next year we have four to five movies and for another two years we will have 12 to 14 movies,” Kiragandur added.

In 2024, there is a social thriller “Tyson” in the pipeline with Prithviraj Sukumaran, “Richard Anthony” with Rakshit Shetty, and a movie with director Sudha Kongara of “Soorarai Pottru” fame.

Hombale Films, which was founded in 2013, tasted pan-India success in 2018 with the period action “K.G.F: Chapter 1” starring Yash. The first film produced by the company was Puneeth Rajkumar-led "Ninnindale".

This year the banner had a golden run at the global box office with "KGF: Chapter 2” and “Kantara” emerging as big successes. Both movies have reportedly earned over Rs 2,000 crore worldwide. “We were able to beat some records that we created like 'Kantara'  became the highest-grossing film in Karnataka. For 'KGF 2' the footfalls were six crore and for 'Kantara' it was about two-and-half to three crore,” Kiragandur said.

Also in the pipeline is the third part of "KGF", which Gowda said will become their focus after director Neel completes "Salaar". “There are plans to make ‘KGF 3'. Currently, Prashant is busy with ‘Salaar' and once he has completed the movie then he will work on the script (for 'KGF 3'). He has a storyline... It can happen next year or after that,” the producer said.

(PTI)