Divya Delhi: Rishab Shetty's commercially successful film 'Kantara' elevated Kannada cinema. The prequel, ‘Kantara: Chapter 1’, will open this holiday season. The film stars Rishab Shetty as Berme, Rukmini Vasanth as Kanakavathi, and Gulshan Devaiah as Kulashekara.Strong pre-sales exceeded the original film's opening day.Kantara Chapter 1 has earned Rs 6.83 crore in Indian advance reservations. According to Sacnilk, the Kannada version earned approximately Rs 5.45 crore from 1,51,602 tickets sold over 1,397 shows, while the Hindi version earned Rs 93.5 lakh from 30,911 tickets sold across 4,140 events. The Malayalam version made Rs 32.3 lakh from 18,020 tickets in 944 shows, the Tamil version Rs 6.36 lakh from 3,826 in 413 shows, and the Telugu version Rs 5.44 lakh from 2,679 in 101 runs. The film was shown 6,995 times nationwide.The Rishab Shetty-directed prequel explores Kantara's legendary beginnings. Set 10 centuries before the previous film, Shetty, Rukmini Vasanth, Jayaram, and Gulshan Devaiah star in a new role.It will open alongside Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari, starring Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Sanya Malhotra, and Rohit Saraf.