Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1 has surprised everyone by showing that a strong connection with the audience can break every old assumption about movie business. We love to assume that OTT takes away the earning opportunity of films from the big screen. But that is not the case with Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1. The film has been on a record-breaking run since its release and has already become the biggest hit of 2025 and the seventh biggest in Indian cinema. Even after landing on OTT in four languages during its fourth week, the theatrical run refused to slow down.
The Hindi version stayed in theatres while the others reached streaming, yet the numbers kept growing. The film has collected more than 620 crore so far and the gap between it and Jawan is now less than 20 crore. Many believed that releasing a film on OTT early would cut into its theatrical earning, but Kantara has shown a different picture. After the OTT launch, it still earned more than 21 crore across languages in theatres. Hindi led the charge with more than 12 crore and Kannada added more than 6 crore. Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam also brought in steady numbers.
This shows that when a story touches people deeply, the shift to OTT does not take away the desire to watch it on the big screen. In fact, the film would have added at least 10 crore more if all languages had stayed exclusive to cinemas for a few more weeks. Kantara has rewritten the way we look at OTT and theatre together. It proves that when the emotional pull is strong, both platforms can grow at the same time and the old idea that OTT hurts theatres simply does not hold true.
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