Due to the pandemic COVID-19, many movies had released on OTT platforms during the lockdown period.
Also after the lockdown, many movies came through OTT platforms because of the shutdown of theatres, and also producers had a fear about the collections, whether the general public will come to the theatres or not just like the old days.
Numerous movies got delayed and a few were released on online platforms. But the audience received the films well which got released after the lockdown. The first movie in Telugu that was released after the lockdown was ‘Seetimaar’ which got an excellent response from the audience but other movies don’t much profit and do not perform well at the theatres.
Likewise, as in Tamil, Doctor is a good movie that performed well at theatres. Like Telugu, several Tamil movies do not perform well. So, directors and producers planned to release their movies in festive seasons.
In that process, the Bollywood movie ‘Sooryavanshi’ starring Akshay Kumar, and Katrina Kaif in lead roles that were released during Diwali season impressed the audience and got impressive collections at the box office. Similarly, Superstar Rajnikanth, Nayanatara, and Keerthy Suresh starring ‘Annaatthe’ also released during Diwali got huge responses in theatres.
These two films revived the arrogance of the moviemakers in theatres and though the recovery could appear slow, fewer films will go on to digital platforms, said film trade analysts.
After the success of films at theatres, Malayalam Superstar Mohanlal announced the theatre release of his much-delayed periodic drama ‘Marakkar, Arabikadalinte Simham’ on 2 December.
Initially, the producers had a plan for a direct OTT release. Except for Abhishek Bachchan-starrer Bob Biswas, which will stream directly on ZEE5 as per media reports, no Bollywood film has announced a digital premiere within the past few weeks.
On the contrary, for Tamil and Telugu films, the theatre market is most important, he said. Some movies from the southern industry have gotten good feedback from audiences across the country, which has encouraged digital platforms to extend additions within the southern languages, besides dubbing them in multiple other languages.
Also, most OTT releases, especially in Hindi, haven’t granted great results, for either digital platforms or producers who feel there’ll be better recovery and more chances of grabbing eyes on the big screen,” said a senior executive at a streaming platform.
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