Kantara's Rishab Shetty recalls selling water cans to make ends meet before stardom: 'For 10 years, I had to survive'

Kantara director and star Rishab Shetty recalled how he did odd jobs like selling water cans in his early days in the film industry as he was finding it hard to make ends meet.

His film Kantara is the second-highest-grossing Kannada film of all time today. The film is running successfully even in the Hindi belt and Rishab Shetty is a household name in most parts of the country all of a sudden. But this ‘overnight success’ has taken almost two decades. In a recent interview, Rishab recalled how he would do odd jobs like selling water cans and working in hotels to make ends meet during his days of struggle.

Rishab Shetty opens up on his days of struggle before he made it big in films.(HT_PRINT)

Rishab Shetty started his journey in the Kannada film industry in 2004 but did not get his first film as a director till 2014. In fact, his first success only came a couple of years later. Now, with Kirik Party’s critical acclaim and Kantara’s commercial success, he has established himself as a major name in the industry. But the road here wasn’t easy.

In a recent interview with Pinkvilla, Rishab revealed, “Right after the second year degree, I started doing odd jobs as I wouldn't have money for watching movies and couldn't ask for money all the time from dad right? Whatever jobs I got, I did all of them. In 2004, I started and in 2014, I got my first direction so in 10 years I had to survive.” Rishab said that some of the jobs he did in that time period included selling water cans, real estate, and hotel work.

Rishab’s latest film Kantara has earned over ₹325 crore gross worldwide, making it the second Kannada film after KGF Chapter 2 to cross the 300-crore mark. The film’s dubbed versions have also done pretty well, with the Hindi version alone netting ₹53 crore so far.