Kirik Party

Synopsis

Kirik Party is the story of a gang of mischievous students, led by the protagonist Karna (Rakshit Shetty), who have just joined an engineering college. They belong to different streams of engineering but develop a bond while staying together in the hostel. The treatment is stylish with light humour throughout while exploring the college life of these youngsters. Karna, the protagonist from a small town has joined this engineering college and he gangs up with his hostel mates Loki, Alexander, Manja and others to fuel a lot of mischief in the college. During the first year he befriends Saanvi (Rashmika Mandanna) a Final year student and certain incidents impact Karna’s life making him question his very basic thought process.

The second half starts with the fun loving girl Arya (Samyuktha Hegde), who is a student of first year Electrical engineering in the same college and falls in love with final year Mechanical engineering student Karna (Rakshith Shetty) at the end both start to love each other.

The progression of Karna and gang from being a bunch of mischief makers to responsible adults is the theme of Kirik Party. It is a fun filled film with lots of melodious songs.

Development

In February 2016, during the promotions of Ricky in Udupi, Rakshit Shetty announced that his next film would be Kirik Party and that Rishab Shetty, the director of the former, would again direct the film. He added that most of Ricky's crew would feature in the film except for Hariprriya, as the film demanded a "fresh female lead". He said that the film would be made in a budget of ₹4 crore. In an interview with The Times of India in December 2016, he said that he wrote the story about six years ago and was inspired from his "college experiences". He added, "Karna [his character in the film] is what I was like in college. He is actually a combination of mine and my best friends' characteristics. I was a naughty guy back then and have changed a lot since; I became serious after moving to Bengaluru".

Casting and filming

Auditions were held in March 2016 for the two female leads and supporting roles in the film, in Bangalore. The makers auditioned over 400 girls and went through 2,000 profiles for the two lead roles. Rashmika Mandanna, then, a model and a student pursuing her graduation, was signed to play the first female lead in the film. She was selected after the makers "liked" the pictures from her win at the Clean & Clear Fresh Face of India 2014 competition. The second role went to Samyukta Hegde, then a 17-year-old, also pursuing her graduation. Post auditions for the supporting roles to play sidekicks to Rakshit Shetty's character in the film, six short film makers, writers, dialogue writers and technicians — Aravind Iyer, Ashwin Rao Pallakki, Shankar Murthy, Dhananjay Ranjan, Chandan and Giri Krishna — were signed. Pramod Shetty, who had previously worked with Rakshit, was also signed.

Filming began on 17 April 2016 with a muhurat shot in Bangalore. It completed in September, with the final leg of the schedule filming a "journey song" for which the makers traveled to 15 places in four states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa spanning 2,400 kilometers. A Hindustan Contessa bearing the 3636 on the plate was used in the film. Rishab Shetty conceived a mute character in the film and the car was used in the place after certain modifications. Elaborating on the role it plays in the film, he said, "It is not about just buying the car, but how they fall in love also makes this vehicle an important part of the film. The car even has a name, Kirik car." The makers spent over a month on finalizing on the "perfect car" before narrowing down on the Contessa "for its long looks".

Marketing

The trailer of the film was released by Kannada actor Upendra at Renukamba Preview Theater in Malleshwaram on 27 October 2016. In YouTube it garnered more than 3 lakh views within 48 hours of its launch, breaking the previous record for a Kannada film trailers, as of feb 2017 it has crossed 2 Million views on youtube.

The official app of Kirik Party was released on 20 December 2016 for Android.

Soundtrack

B. Ajaneesh Loknath composed the soundtrack and background music for the film. The soundtrack album consists of six songs. The film contains ten tracks out of which only six were included in the album. The full soundtrack was said to be unveiled at a later date as an extended album. Lyrics for the tracks were written by Rakshit Shetty, Dhananjay Ranjan, Kiran Kaverappa and Veeresh Shivamurthy. Tracks released on the internet prior to the film release went viral. On 25 November 2016, the video for the track "Belageddu", sung by Vijay Prakash, was released, and became chart topper. Deciding to not tie up with any music label, the producers released the album online in November 2016, under their own banner.

The track "Hey Who are you", which had the music allegedly similar to the track "Madhyarathrili" of the 1991 Kannada film Shanti Kranti, had to be deleted from the film, after Lahari Music had the release of the film stayed after it approached the court accusing the makers of violation of copyrights that it held. Eventually court gave permissions to feature the song in the movie. The case is still ongoing.

Extended Soundtrack

Though the movie had a few additional tracks, they were not released as a part of the official soundtrack initially. Post the release of the movie, many fans requested the team to release other songs as well. This contained four songs, all of which formed a vital part of the movie's screenplay. Lyrics of the songs Kaagadada Doniyalli was widely appreciated across the social media. Vasuki Vaibhav who had scored music for Rama Rama Re sang this song. Interestingly, this made him the third music director to lend his voice to this movie after Ajaneesh himself and Bharat BJ. Actor Vasishta N. Simha made his debut as a singer through the song Neecha Sullu Sutto Naalige.

Video Songs

One of the songs from the Kirik Party, 'Belageddu', created ripples in the Kannada film industry before releasing the film in the cinemas, by its tune, lyrics, music and camera work. It went on to become the first Kannada song to get over 17 million hits on world's most popular video sharing website YouTube.

Release and reception

Kirik Party was given a "U" certificate by the regional Censor Board. It released theatrically on 30 December 2016 across Karnataka. The subsequent days saw releases in Karnataka's neighbouring States of Andra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. Over the following month, it was released and saw strong opening in United States, Singapore, Dubai, Japan, Israel and parts of Europe. The strong opening at the domestic box-office was significant in that the film faced stiff competition from the hitherto already successful run of Hindi film Dangal.

Critical response

The film opened to positive reviews from critics upon theatrical release. Writing for The Hindu, Archana Nathan called the film a "party down memory lane", further adding that "[t]here is an underlying theme of self-discovery that runs through the film" and also noting that "Ajaneesh Lokanath’s sound track plays a huge role in this narrative experience." Sunayana Suresh of The Times of India rated the film 4 out of 5, saying "Go ahead, watch this film and relive nostalgia from your college days." She further said that the film "scores high on technical values". Shashi Prasad of The Deccan Chronicle too rated 4/5 stars and wrote, "Both Rakshit and Rishab Shetty seem to have held onto the pulse of the new set of audience." He added, "If possible, take your college friends to watch this one for maximum fun and love." Noted critic Baradwaj Rangan writing on his blog said, "The must-haves of our cinema are all there. Romance. Comedy. Songs. Fights. But the director, Rishab Shetty, is stupendously inventive, and these generic elements acquire startlingly specific colours." He added "Forget La La Land. This is the most inventive musical of 2016."

Shyam Prasad of Bangalore Mirror rated 3.5/5 stars and wrote, "Director Rishab Shetty manages to derive lively and realistic performances from all actors. There is attention to detail but without forcing anything." A. Sharadhaa of The New Indian Express wrote that the film "portrays the happiness of youngsters’s life like never before in Kannada cinema" and added that it "touches the rainbow of experiences with sensibility, and does not waste much time, which is essentially the plus point of the film." She concluded by commending the performances of all the actors, alongside praising the film's music and camerawork. S. Viswanath of Deccan Herald called the film "a cacophonous campus tale spotlighting on the less appreciable aspects of students’ life." He wrote, "What is infuriating is that Rishab Shetty believes bunking classes, copying in exams, throwing tantrums at teachers and principal, whistling and wolfing at campus girls, invading hostels and downing pegs are meatier than the realistic depiction of what constitutes a student’s life" and added that "[W]hat actually ensures that one does not give up on Kirik Party is the brilliant acting of Rashmika Mandanna and Samyuktha Hegde."

Flickside lists 'Kirik Party' among the 'Best Kannada Films of 2016,' alongside 'Thithi.'

Box office

The film collected ₹6 crore (US$890,000) on its opening weekend which is recorded as one of the biggest openings in Kannada cinema. It also opened strongly in Andra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The distributors revealed in January 2017 of having collected a share of close to ₹7 crore (US$1.0 million) and a gross of ₹10 crore (US$1.5 million) at the end of one week after release. The New Indian Express reported that the film had "apparently made a business of [₹]25 crore" after 25 days. By the end of 75 days, it collected ₹35 crore (US$5.2 million) and still was being screened in over over 100 cinemas.

The film released on in United Arab Emirates 6 January in over 20 screens and collected ₹38 lakh (US$56,000) in three days, over the weekend. The overall gross had reached ₹18 crore (US$2.7 million) by then. The film was performed strongly in the United States upon release on 1 February in over 60 screens after Jolly Hits acquired the distribution rights for overseas release. It collected US$233,507 at the US box office in the first weekend and was reported by the trade analyst Taran Adarsh: "Kannada film #KirikParty is TERRIFIC in USA... Wed + Thu $ 54,555, Fri $ 47,480, Sat $ 92,606. Total: $ 194,641 [₹ 1.31 cr]". With this, it broke the RangiTaranga's lifetime collections in the country in over just one weekend.