26 August,2023 08:55 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Dulquer Salmaan
Dulquer Salmaan's Onam offering 'King Of Kotha' hit the screens on August 24. Several parts of Kerala saw the Housefull boards sign at theatres on the release day of the film. The film directed by Abhilash Joshiy is a gangster drama that also stars Aishwarya Lekshmi, Shabeer Kallarakal, Chemban Vinod, Gokul Suresh among others. While the film has been receiving mixed reviews from audiences, it has collected Rs 7 crore at the box office on opening day.
After the release of the film, Dulquer Salmaan, who has also co-produced the film, penned a note of gratitude. Sharing a picture of himself from the 'King Of Kotha' Promotional tour, he wrote, "LOVE! I have always received more love than I could ever dream of. Every single member of the audience is the reason for my being here. And I give it my all every time because of that love. Even when I stumble you all lift me up. It humbles me and encourages all of us to keep trying harder,"
His note further reads, "Your calls and messages have put me over the moon. I am humbled that our film is receiving so much love from the audiences. Every day on a set and every film is a learning experience! A big hug to each one of you who are giving our film an opportunity to entertain you, we are glad to be a part of your Onam. We thank our audiences from the bottom of our hearts."
The film, a gangster drama, is one of the most expensive films coming from Malayalam cinema, an industry that is known for producing content-heavy films on minimal budgets. For King Of Kotha, the actor and his production house Wayfarer Films joined hands with ZEE Studios which is currently basking in the success of 'Gadar 2'.
At a press conference, Dulquer had spoken about the scale of the film. "The Malayalam industry has always been very budget-focused, we are a bit wary of going bigger but in the lockdown when people watched our cinema, it made us familiar across the country. Now, we have a lot more courage to push ourselves," he said.
"With this film, we have pushed as much as we could. In terms of budget and scale, we went all out. It's my most expensive film to date, it's the biggest film we have produced as a company," Dulquer said. Citing the example of Rishab Shetty-starrer 'Kantara', the actor said through such films people are able to discover about different Indian cultures.
