Sudeep, SRK, Puneeth await a comeback

Kannada

audience are flocking to theatres. It is estimated that the first six months of the year has been the best ever for ticket sales for Kannada films. But except for Shiva Rajkumar's

Shivalinga

, hardly any other film involving a big star made much of an impact at the box office. Though the opening weekends for star films broke all their own previous films, it is the films of newcomers that have hogged all the limelight so far.

To make matters worse, there are only a handful of new films of the top stars in the market. Over the next two months only four films of big stars gearing up for release; Shiva Rajkumar's

Santeyalli Ninta Kabeera

, Sudeep's

Kotigobba

2, Puneeth's

Dodmane Hudga

and Upendra's Kalpana 2. After that the field will be wide open for smaller films for the rest of the year.

Smaller films tend to avoid the films of big stars as they are deprived of screens. Star films release in anywhere between 200 to 300 theatres across Karnataka. This leaves only the second-rung and leftovers for the others. So a week or two after a big film, the number of other Kannada films.

Tamil film

Kabali

, starring Rajinikanth is releasing on July 15. This is one film that Kannada films in Karnataka are also vary of. They expect the film to release in a record numbe of screens and trying to avoid a clash at the box office. So the films of Kannada star films will start only in the end of July. Both Kotigobba 2 and Santeyalli Ninta Kabeera are expected to release in July end followed by Kalpana 2 and Dodmane Hudga (said to be around

Varamahalakshmi

festival) in August.