If there is magic in movies, then Kannada film producers Vijay Kiragandur and Chaluve Gowda seem to be magicians. In a year when most films suffered a tragic fate at the box office, the producer duo delivered smashing hits in KGF - Chapter 2, and Kantara. The year 2023 looks promising for Hombale Films, too — on the anvil is the Prabhas-led actioner, Salaar.

“We want to make Indian movies. That’s why we announced Salaar as an Indian movie, not Telugu. Almost 85 per cent of the shoot is done. Only the climax has to be shot in Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad, next month. We are expecting it to be our biggest movie so far. Prabhas hasn’t been seen like this since Baahubali,” says Kiragandur. The film, also starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Shruti Haasan, will also release in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.

Prashanth Neel’s actioner is strategically designed as a pan-India film that will strengthen south films’ domination at the box office. In fact, buoyed by their recent movies’ success, the producer duo have plans to expand to north India with a Hindi film.

“We are working with a few north and south Indian writers. Once the story is ready, we will do an original Hindi film. We recently heard a story that we didn’t like. So [the writers] are working on more scripts. We may announce the Hindi film soon,” shares Gowda.

In 2018, Yash-starrer KGF - Chapter 1 became a blockbuster, paving the way for a successful second instalment earlier this year. But the success of Rishab Shetty’s Kantara, which released in September, took many by surprise. Kiragandur says the theme of spirituality appealed to the wide and diverse audience.

“When you tell a story of your culture and tradition, it will appeal to all kinds of audiences. We always trusted the story, and had plans to dub it in four other languages. But some distributors and exhibitors were apprehensive. So, we did a 50-screen première in Karnataka one day before the film’s release, and got a tremendous response. The same night, we went ahead with the dubbing, and released Kantara in other languages within a fortnight.”

Vijay Kiragandur and Chaluve Gowda