How about watching Rajinikanth’s upcoming film Petta in Kannada? Yes, this will soon be a reality, as preparations are going on in full-swing for the dubbing of the film in the Kannada language. According to a source, the action film, written and directed by Karthik Subbaraj and produced by Kalanithi Maran, is slated to release in January 2019 during Pongal.
Serious discussions are on to have the Tamil flick simultaneously released in Kannada along with other languages. Our source tells us, “The dialogues for the Kannada version have already been done, and dubbing is in process. Now, only an official confirmation from the producers is awaited. In that case, Petta will be the first film to release in Kannada on the same day along with other languages.”
Also, the upcoming Telugu film —Vinaya Vidheya Rama, starring Ram Charan and directed by Boyapati Srinu — is slated to release during Pongal, and might also simultaneously release in Kannada. This, after Kannada film KGF was dubbed and released nationwide in four different languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam) and all the versions were also released in Karnataka too “KGF paved the way for dubbing of other language films into Kannada. this has given a cue to various production houses and distributors in the state who are contemplating the release of Tamil film Petta in Kannada too,” our source says.
For a long time, the dubbing debate has been on, and Sandalwood has had a divided opinion. In fact, the industry opened up to the idea when Fast and Furious 8 was dubbed and released in Kannada as Vega Matthu Udvega 8. Before that came Naanu Nanna Preeti, which was a dubbed version of the Hindi film, My Husband’s Wife, This was done after the Karnataka High Court and Competition Commission of India (CCI) ruled out that restrictions cannot be applied on films dubbed from other language released in Kannada.
Then followed with the Tamil film Yennai Arindhaal released as Sathyadev IPS and Arambam was released as Dheera in Kannada in 2017. In 2018, Vivegam starring Ajith was released as Commando. Petta will be the first film to see a simultaneous release in Kannada too. Recently, City Express had reported that Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce was contemplating the simultaneous release of other languages films in Kannada. And this might be the first move towards that.