India, Aug. 16 -- Kannada actor-filmmaker Pawan Kumar leads a new Kannada suspense thriller show called Shodha, which is set to come to Z5 (via OTTplay Premium also) on August 22, 2025. This is the platform's second original Kannada series only, and the buzz in the industry has been about the budgetary constraints that teams collaborating with the streamer have been facing. Pawan, who has served as script doctor on the show for fine-tuning and giving it a better sense of direction, admits that the budgets allocated for Kannada shows are low, but doesn't see it as a deterrent.

Instead, he believes that people like him owe it to the Kannada industry, which has been neglected by streaming platforms for years, to step up, work within these l...