After weeks of speculation on why Rajinikanth’s Petta was not dubbed in Kannada, the distributor of the movie has now cleared the air of mystery. 

Petta hit the screens on January 10 for Pongal and is doing well at the box office. The film was also dubbed in Hindi and Telugu and is garnering positive response from both the regions. However, the Kannada version of the movie suffered a major setback and its release was stalled. 

According to reports, the distributor of the Kannada version was keen on having Rajinikanth himself dub for his role with his own voice but it was turned down by the producers.

Jack Manju, the distributor of the movie, gave an interview to Cinema Express in which he has clarified the reason behind not dubbing the movie in Kannada. “Rajinikanth felt that since he is getting older, he doesn’t want to be part of any controversies. He also felt that Kannadigas have a strong culture of bonding, and he doesn’t want to hurt or disturb any sentiments,” Jack Manju said.

Speaking about the way forward, he said, “A meeting has been arranged with the production house, which will take place after Sankranti. Only then we can take a decision. Personally, I don’t think there is any excitement without Rajinikanth’s voice featuring in the Kannada version.”

Petta, a Karthik Subbaraj directorial, has been bankrolled by Kalanithi Maran under his banner Sun Pictures. The film stars Simra, Trisha, Malavika Mohanan, Megha Akash, Bobby Simha and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The movie also has Vijay Sethupathi playing an important role, which is the first time the actor is sharing the screenspace with Rajinikanth.

Anirudh Ravichander composed music for this gangster movie with Tirru cranking the camera and Vivek Harshan in charge of the editing. Peter Hein handled stunt choreography while Baba Bhaskar and Sheriff worked on dance. Suresh Selvarajan was the production designer, Kunal Rajan was the sound designer and Niharika Khan and Praveen Raja took care of the costumes.

(Content provided by Digital Native)