'Kantara 2' shooting to begin in June, confirms producer Vijay Kiragandur Since the theatrical release of Kantara, actor-director Rishab Shetty has constantly made headlines due to the critical acclaim the movie continues to receive. Hombale Films founder Vijay Kirgandur, in an exclusive interaction with Deadline, revealed that Rishab Shetty has already started working on the film.Vijay was quoted as stating, “Rishab is writing the story now and has gone to the forests of coastal Karnataka with his writing associates for two months to conduct research for the film. He plans to start shooting in June, as a portion of the shoot requires the rainy season, and our intention is to give the film a pan-India release in April or May next year,” Vijay told Deadline.Spilling the beans on the plot Vijay said, “The prequel will explore the backstory of the deity and its pact with a troubled king that was intended to protect the villagers and the nature that surrounds them.”He further said the budget for the prequel will be substantially bigger than for the first film: “Kantara was so successful that whatever we do next has to be big, as expectations are high. We’ll add a few names to the cast, but we want to keep it authentic and similar in style and substance to the first film.”Originally released in Kannada in September 2022, the makers later released the film in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam owing to its massive popularity. Made on a budget of Rs 16 crore, the film became one of the highest-grossing films of 2022, collecting approximately Rs 400 crore globally. Currently, the film is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in all major South Indian languages while the Hindi version of the Film is available on Netflix.Also Read: ‘Kantara’ Qualifies For The Oscars