K.G.F.: Chapter 2 is an upcoming Indian Kannada-language period drama action film written and directed by Prashanth Neel, and produced by Vijay Kiragandur under the banner Hombale Films. The second installment of the two-part series, it is a sequel to the 2018 film K.G.F: Chapter 1. The film stars Yash, Sanjay Dutt, Srinidhi Shetty, Raveena Tandon and Prakash Raj.

Neel retained the technicians from its predecessor with Bhuvan Gowda handling the cinematography and Ravi Basrur scoring the music for the soundtrack and the film's background. It is the most expensive Kannada film with a budget of ₹100 crore. The film is scheduled for a theatrical release on 14 April 2022 in Kannada along with the dubbed versions of Telugu, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam languages.

Cast
Yash as Raja "Rocky" Krishnappa Bhairya
Anmol Vijay as young Rocky
Sanjay Dutt as Adheera
Raveena Tandon as Ramika Sen, Prime Minister of India
Prakash Raj as Vijayendra Ingalagi
Anant Nag as Anand Ingalagi
Achyuth Kumar as Guru Pandian
Srinidhi Shetty as Reena Desai
Malavika Avinash as Deepa Hegde, the chief editor of news channel
Eswari Rao
Rao Ramesh as CBI officer Kanneganti Raghavan
T. S. Nagabharana as the owner of the news channel
Archana Jois as Rocky's mother
 B.S. Avinash as Andrews
Ramachandra Raju as Garuda
Vasishta N. Simha as Kamal
B. Suresha as Vittal, a slave at KGF
Saran Shakthi
Appaji Ambarisha Darbha

Production

Development 
Prashanth Neel, worked on the film's screenplay after the release of Ugramm (2014), and development of the film began in early 2015. However, he decided to split the film in two parts, as the narration of this story is in non-linear format, and the decision to split the film into two parts, also had to with the commercial prospects. In an interview with The Times of India, in October 2018, he added “The scale of the project is huge and we had a scope for a beginning, an interval and an end for both parts, so it made sense for us to release it as two parts”. As for the decision to make it as a multilingual, he says that it was because the film is based on a unique idea and has a universal theme. In December 2020, Prashanth Neel confirmed that there is no third installment in the KGF franchise.

Prashanth Neel decided to rope in composer Ravi Basrur and cinematographer Bhuvan Gowda as a part of the technical crew for the second part of the film.

Casting
While Yash and Srinidhi Shetty have reprised their respective roles, Sanjay Dutt was roped in for a pivotal role in February 2019. Media rumours that Raveena Tandon would appear in the film started making rounds as early as February 2019. A news report in The Times of India confirmed that Tandon will be seen in a "major role" in the film. Despite Srinidhi becoming a breakout star, post the release of the predecessor, she rejected seven films, in order to start shoot for the film. The makers hosted an audition in April 2019, for aspiring actors who want to become a part of the film's cast.

On 29 July 2019, Sanjay Dutt was revealed to be playing the role of the main antagonist Adheera. He compared his character to Thanos, and revealed that it was "shown to be a dangerous character with scary makeup" and added that it was a role he was looking for. Raveena Tandon was reported to play the role of Prime Minister Ramika Sen, and stated that "it was a difficult character to portray".

Telugu actor Rao Ramesh was cast in a pivotal role in May 2019, and Tamil actor Saran Shakthi was cast in August 2019. On 26 August 2020, when the filming resumed, Prakash Raj was also revealed to be playing an important character.

Filming
Before the release of its predecessor in December 2018, the makers shot 20% of its second part, and the crew went on double shifts till January 2019. On 4 January, it was announced that they have completed 15% of the shooting, and planned to resume the film in the summer of 2019.

Filming for K.G.F: Chapter 2 started on 13 March 2019 in Hyderabad, with a formal puja ceremony. After an initial round of filming near Bangalore in May 2019, Yash announced that he will join the sets only in June 2019. The film's shooting started on 4 June at the Lalita Mahal Palace in Mysore, although Yash joined the sets on 6 June. Later the shoot commenced in August 2019 at Cyanide Hills in Kolar Gold Fields. On 28 August 2019, N Srinivas, president of the KGF's National Citizens Party filed a petition against the makers and alleged that the film is being shot in the protected area of cyanide mound and is damaging the nature. The JMFC court has issued an injunction notice to the producer Kiragandur, also ordering to stall the shoot. On 4 September, the producers claimed that the stay order was issued a day before the makers planned to wrap the shoot schedule. The same day, the makers started shooting for the second schedule in Hyderabad. On 25 September 2019, Sanjay Dutt joined the sets of the film in Hyderabad. After winning the court stay order on 27 September, the makers returned to shoot the film at Cyanide Hills. On 14 October 2019, the makers returned to Karnataka, after filming the extensive schedule in Hyderabad.

As of 27 January 2020, the makers completed 80% of the shoot. With the schedule being filmed in Mysore, the last leg of shoot was expected to be held in Hyderabad, and then in Bangalore and Kolar. On 3 February 2020, behind-the-scenes video of Yash shooting at the Infosys campus in Mysore went viral. On 10 February, Telugu actor Rao Ramesh joined the sets of the film. Raveena Tandon joined the sets of the film in Mysore on 12 February. After the second schedule of the film held in Mysore got completed, the makers headed to Hyderabad on 21 February. Raveena completed her portions on 28 February. The makers completed major portions in March 2020, with post-production works being kickstarted, but filming came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India.  Prashanth Neel claimed that Sanjay Dutt had completed shooting for the film, with only dubbing for his portions, is pending, after Sanjay Dutt was diagnosed with lung cancer, and left US for immediate treatment on 12 August 2020.

The film was resumed on 26 August 2020 at Bangalore post a gap of 5 months. Malavika Avinash and Prakash Raj joined the sets on this schedule. On 7 October 2020, Yash and Srinidhi Shetty resumed the shoot at Mangalore, with the team entering the final leg of shoot. Sanjay Dutt confirmed that he will join the shooting of the film on November, although he resumed the shooting only in December. The climax action scenes were filmed in December 2020 at Hyderabad, which were choreographed by action director Anbariv. On 20 December 2020, the makers announced that the climax scene of the film was completed. The team planned to complete the shooting of the film within January 2021.

Music
The film score has been composed by Ravi Basrur.

Marketing
As a part of the promotional activities, a fictional newspaper named KGF Times was designed based on vintage newspapers. Starting from 4 to 10 January 2021, the makers unveiled the new editions of the film through their social media accounts.

The teaser trailer was initially scheduled to release on 8 January 2021, coinciding with Yash's birthday. However, after few cuts from the teaser leaked through the internet, the makers unveiled the teaser on 7 January, ahead of the official launch. Instead of releasing the teaser in five languages, the makers released it as a single teaser featuring English dialogues. It became the most viewed and most liked teaser.

Release

Theatrical
K.G.F: Chapter 2 was originally scheduled to release in theatres on 23 October 2020, coinciding with Dusshera festival. However, the release was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. In January 2021, the filmmakers announced that it will be released theatrically on 16 July 2021. However, it was postponed again for the same reason. In August 2021, the new release date was announced as 14 April 2022. It is set to release in Kannada and dubbed versions of Telugu, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam languages.

Distribution 
KRG Studios, a sister company of the film's studio Hombale Films, bought the distribution rights of the Kannada version while the film's Hindi version would be distributed by Rithesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar and Anil Thadani under their banners Excel Entertainment and AA Films who had also bought the predecessor of the film. The rights for the Telugu dubbed version were sold to Dil Raju's Sri Venkateswara Creations. whereas Prithviraj Sukumaran acquired the rights for the Malayalam dubbed version under his Prithviraj Productions banner. The rights for the Tamil dubbed version were acquired by Dream Warrior Pictures.

Home media
Satellite rights of the movie were acquired by ZEE Network for the four languages in South India. Their four channels - Zee Kannada for the Kannada version of the film, Zee Tamil for the Tamil version, Zee Telugu for the Telugu version and Zee Keralam for the Malayalam version - bagged the worldwide satellite rights of the film.

Controversy
The Karnataka State Anti-Tobacco Cell sent a notice to actor Yash, producer Vijay Kiragandur and filmmaker Prashanth Neel on 11 January 2021 as the makers failed to display the anti-smoking warning message, particularly in the sequences that involve Yash smoking. As per the law, anti-smoking warnings have to be displayed to stop fans from emulating it.

References

Other websites 
 

Indian movies
Period action movies
Kannada-language movies
Upcoming movies
2020s sequel movies
2020s action movies
2020s drama movies
Movies set in the 1980s
Movies about revenge
Movies directed by Prashanth Neel