Karthikeya 2 has helped me reach new audiences: Nikhil Siddhartha

Karthikeya 2 was released in cinemas in August at a time when the box office in India wore a gloomy look, especially in the Telugu states. Karthikeya 2 is said to have earned Rs 140 crore from its worldwide ticket sales. Surprisingly, it did well and gave much-needed respite to stakeholders in the industry. It’s a huge success considering the budget of the film is below Rs 50 crore.

“The movie went from strength to strength. Initially, we thought it was going to have a limited release (in the north belt). It started with 50 shows and then it went up to 4000 shows in Hindi. We had a huge opening in Telugu. It was unstoppable. Even after 50 days, it was still playing in cinemas. That’s a big deal. It had such a huge reach and touched so many people,” Nikhil added.

Karthikeya 2 tells the story of a young doctor, who enjoys solving deep mysteries of human existence. In this film, the responsibility of finding Lord Krishna’s anklet, which has secrets to create magic pills to cure various illnesses, is thrust upon his shoulders.

“I’m a fan of history and a devotee of Lord Krishna. And since the Indian Archaeological Society had the findings of a lost city under the ocean near Dwarka, we became curious. And we did our research to find out what may have happened. I definitely enjoy doing such films more than the regular love stories,” he said.

The commercial success of Karthikeya 2 has made the third installment of the franchise inevitable. But, fans of the franchise have to wait for some time. “I have got a lot of movies to do. I want to do all kinds of genres. In my upcoming film Spy, I am playing a RAW agent. I also have a movie called 18 Pages in the pipeline, which is a very different romantic movie,” Nikhil said.

Written and directed by Chandoo Mondeti, Karthikeya 2 also stars Anupama Parameswaran and Anupam Kher in the lead roles.