After facing a major slump at the start of the week, Dulquer Salmaan’s Kaantha managed to stay relatively steady on its fifth day. As per early estimates from Sacnilk.com, the film has earned around Rs 1.75 crore (all languages) on Tuesday, taking its five-day India total to approximately Rs 17.40 crore.
The period mystery drama opened with strong momentum, earning Rs 4.35 crore on Friday, followed by an uptick on Saturday with Rs 5 crore. Its Sunday collections dipped slightly to Rs 4.5 crore, but the sharpest fall came on Monday when the film dropped over 60%, collecting Rs 1.8 crore. With Day 5 numbers landing close to Monday’s earnings, Kaantha appears to have settled into its weekday pace.
Globally, the film has already crossed the Rs 25 crore mark over the first few days and remains one of the more talked-about Tamil releases of the season.
Directed by Selvamani Selvaraj, Kaantha is loosely inspired by the dramatic rise and decline of filmmaker-singer MK Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, regarded as Tamil cinema’s first superstar. Released on November 14, the film opened to largely positive reviews, with praise for its world-building, visual scale and lead performances.
An excerpt from our CE review of the film read, "While we feel enamoured by the visual grandeur of this world, one can’t help but feel a sense of exhaustion from the world-building that might even make one forget that the film began with a murder. Kaantha goes to so many places that the cold-blooded murder gets buried under the visual and aural splendour and performances that you can’t take your eyes off."
The film also stars Samuthirakani, Bhagyashri Borse, and Rana Daggubati, with Ravindra Vijay, Nizhalgal Ravi, and Bagavathi Perumal in key roles. It is jointly bankrolled by Spirit Media and Wayfarer Films, marking Dulquer’s return to Tamil cinema after Hey Sinamika (2022).
Kaantha also boasts an impressive technical team, including cinematographer Dani Sanchez Lopez, editor Llewellyn Anthony Gonsalvez, composer Jhanu Chanthar, and art director Ramalingam, with additional writing contributions from Thamizh Prabha and Sri Harsha Rameshwaram.