Kantara

Kantara is the soundtrack album to the 2022 film of the same name, written and directed by Rishab Shetty, and stars himself in the lead role. Produced by Hombale Films, the film features music composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath, who described it as a "culture-based folklore film in musical context" and wanted the music to be "rooted in the traditions of the 1990s". To attempt, what the crew had envisioned, both the film score and original songs were composed using folk instruments and folk musicians were roped in for the songs. Kantara's soundtrack was preceded by the single track "Singara Siriye" released on 15 August 2022. The five-track album was released after the film's theatrical release, on 12 October 2022, with a sixth track being added as the bonus song. The dubbed soundtracks were released on 24 October. The music received positive critical response, praising the instrumentation and setting in tune to the ethnicity and tradition of Tulu Nadu regions. Development Shetty decided to bring the folk music as an integral part of the script while writing, whereas Loknath added that the music in the film is different for other films he had composed. He brought in nearly 30–40 musicians, with approximately 10 musicians in a group resided during Kundapur, and all the songs were recorded at an open-air theatre in Mangalore, while multiple music groups who play instruments such as Koraga's Dollu, Huli Kunitha Dollu, Thase, Nadaswaram and Chanda performed the music, so as to give importance to the folk music in Tulu Nadu. Nearly 40 hours of recording were used for the film's background score, for which Loknath excited him more than the songs, as "there is immense scope for experimentation". He combined flute with dollu instrument, so that the sound of dollu would dominate the flute music, and also used Australian tribal instrument didgeridoo which served as the "key in producing the scream-like sound" which was enriched by blending with kazoo. For the Daiva dance, he used Damaru and gaggara, and also hired noted sound recordists Arun and Shine to capture and produce that sound.