Prashanth Neel’s “KGF: Chapter 2,” starring Yash, is one of the biggest box office hits this spring, grossing around $120 million worldwide since its April 14 release.

Produced by Vijay Kiragandur for Hombale Films, “KGF: Chapter 2” was made on a budget of $13 million and is a sequel to the 2018 movie “KGF: Chapter 1.” Set in the 1970s and 1980s, the film followed the journey of mobster Rocky (Yash) and his attempt to take over the Kolar Goldfields. The sequel continues its journey and the stakes are higher with its adversaries including the Prime Minister of India. The film is in Kannada language with Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam dubbed versions.

The filmmakers had an idea of ​​what the film could achieve, when the teaser was released in January 2021, and, as the film’s release was postponed due to the pandemic, garnered over 258 million views. “It’s overwhelming, for sure,” Yash said Variety on the film’s success at the box office. “But the market potential was already clear.”

The end credits of “KGF: Chapter 2” contain an MCU-style clue to a third chapter. “We’ve already thought of a lot of scenes, me and Prashanth,” Yash explains. “There are a lot of things we couldn’t do in ‘Chapter 2.’ So we know there’s a lot of possibilities, there’s a lot of great scenes. But that’s just an idea. And we just left it there for now.

The “KGF” journey began in 2014, when Kiragandur, who had just produced Hombale’s debut album “Ninnindale”, featuring the late Puneeth Rajkumar, approached Yash. They got along and decided to do several projects together. Their partnership began with “Masterpiece”. Neel, who had debuted with ‘Ugramm’ (2014), which impressed Yash, had an idea, which he pitched to the actor and producer. There was a part of the story set in a mine that Yash said had the potential to be a bigger story, which Neel expanded on. After that, we had to wait while Yash finished his other engagements.

“KGF” was supposed to be a movie, but halfway through production, Neel decided to split the movie in two, because he felt some scenes were rushed and the emotional aspect of it, something that’s essential to gaining Indian audiences, regardless of genre, need expansion. The production took a month off to work on this aspect. “The best portions were in the second half, which is ‘Chapter 2.’ It was the bet we had to take,” Yash said.

The bet worked. “KGF: Chapter 1” grossed $33 million, was a hit across India, and found additional audiences on Amazon Prime Video.

For Yash, also described by his fans as ‘Rocking Star’, the global success of ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ is the latest leg of a journey that began as a child growing up in Mysore. Born Naveen Kumar Gowda to a bus driver and housewife, his childhood dream was to be an actor.

“I never had a plan B, I always thought I was a hero. It’s because in my childhood, I used to participate in many cultural activities, and I had used to get that extra attention – people used to clap and whistle,” Yash said. “So I think I got hooked on it at a very young age.”

After school and college, his parents not being able to afford to send him to acting school, Yash moved to Bangalore to work as an assistant director on a film. His parents, always favorable to his choices, let him go on the condition that if he returns home, he will have to stay and finish his studies. “They thought okay, maximum one or two days he will be there, or a week, and he will be back. He will realize what life is,” Yash said.

The movie Yash served as AD on came to a halt in two days, and he had no place to stay in the big city. Rather than be discouraged, Yash joined Benaka, a theater group founded by the late playwright BV Karanth, and toured Mumbai, working behind the scenes. As he also learned about each role played, he was hired as an emergency understudy should one of the actors be indisposed. This led to small roles and then television. Movie offers followed, but then, like now, Yash turned them down because of the scripts.

Yash eventually made his film debut with a small role in ‘Jambada Hudugi’ (2007), followed by a supporting role in ‘Moggina Manasu’ (2008), with ‘Rocky’ (2008) being his first film as an actor. main man. Shot after shot followed. The actor is a big supporter of Kannada cinema and felt bad when people discriminated against him by calling it small compared to other South Indian film industries. He was instrumental in the large-scale editing of “KGF” films.

“Just by taking this step, so much has changed for our industry. People received it in all parts of the country and no one expected it to happen. If you’re confident in your product, I think you should go out and explore,” Yash said.

The actor believes there is a lot of potential for two-way collaboration as Indian cinema is going international and the world is turning to India. “I know they have a lot of technology and budgets and all that, but sometimes it’s not just about that, it’s about the content and they also want to see different things, they also want to see other cultures, they want to see our hero,” Yash said. Indian heroism in recent times has worked in the West, beyond diaspora audiences, with SS Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’ grossing 145 millions of dollars.

“The kind of market we have here in India now, that’s definitely something everybody wants to capture. And we have another market outside that is not being tapped,” Yash added. the product is good and people accept it, then you get those numbers, so the world is our territory.