Prashanth Neel’s KGF 2, Starring Yash And Sanjay Dutt, To Release On July 16, 2021

2021 is going to be a big year, with more than a dozen-and-a-half big films from the four industries of the South gearing up for release. The latest to announce its release date is the much-awaited Prashant Neels' KGF: Chapter 2, starring Yash and Sanjay Dutt, among others. But, can  theaters accommodate them all and, more importantly, do viewers have the patience and the money to splurge on movie tickets?

Since 2020 turned out to be a path-breaking season for OTT platforms as movie halls were shut for the better part of the year, 2021 is expected to be a game-changer for the latter. As far as Kannada cinema is concerned, the Puneeth Rajkumar-starrer Yuvarathnaa is expected to set the cash registers ringing from April, and if the momentum catches on, KGF 2 might reap rich dividends.

Prashanth Neel has already begun working on the Prabhas movie Salaar, and it'll be interesting to see if his Telugu venture would also release in the same calendar year as KGF 2.

In KGF: Chapter 1, Rocky Bhai (Yash) was the all-encompassing boss, and the teaser of the sequel earlier this month only reinforced that. The teaser was supposed to be released for Yash's birthday, but was put out a whole night earlier after some miscreants leaked it on social media. The teaser was released on the YouTube channel of producers Hombale Films.

The teaser runs on the power of a voiceover that rekindles memories of the first part and takes it a notch up from there. While actors from Bollywood such as Sanjay Dutt and Raveena Tandon are seen in the teaser, Rao Ramesh from the Telugu film industry makes a blink-and-miss appearance. Of course, there's also Srinidhi Shetty, and Yash, assembling a Gatling gun and firing away at cops.

The greys and the browns of KGF: Chapter 2 are reminiscent of the Hollywood blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).

Sanjay Dutt plays Adheera, the antagonist, a character said to be inspired by the brutal ways of the Vikings. The Hindi version of the film is distributed by Excel Pictures. Others in the cast include Prakash Raj, Srinidhi Shetty, Anant Nag and Achyuth Kumar.