Upendra is in Hyderabad to promote his upcoming release, 'UI'. Speaking to the media, he defended the Kannada film industry, saying that Sandalwood is much more than its two most popular movies in decades - 'KGF' and 'Kantara'.
"There is a lot to the industry. Kannada filmmakers have made astonishing movies right from the beginning. In recent times, Duniya Vijay's Bheema was fabulous. Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi, starring Ganesh, is another fantastic movie from our industry," Upendra said.
The impression among non-Kannada audiences is that Kannada films are generally amateurish and poor. Action films like 'Martin' get dubbed into other languages and when their content turns out to be poor, the impression only gets reinforced.
In any case, films like 'Bheema' and 'Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi', which Upendra proudly invoked, were not released in Telugu. Probably, they couldn't find any takers among producers/distributors here. If Kannada films are so unique and offer variety, why don't they get dubbed into Telugu? Many Malayalam thrillers find traction on OTT among Telugus, Tamils and Hindi audiences. But Kannada films don't have an OTT viewer base either.
