The 2022 Odia film Daman, which made a national impact and received the National Film Award for Best Odia Film, has now finally been released on the OTT platform. The film was released on November 4th 2022, and almost 2 years later, on 15th October, it was made available on the OTT platform AAO NXT, which is a dedicated OTT space for Odia movies and series.
The film’s title is an abbreviation of Durgama Anchalare Malaria Nirakarana (DAMaN), which stands for Malaria Eradications in Remote Locations. The film revolves around a young doctor, Siddharth, who after finishing his MBBS is posted in a remote location of Malkangiri district. The area has its own issues of malaria infections, illiteracy and ignorance of people towards medical science and Naxal interference. Siddharth has to overcome all these issues and also the struggle of living in a cut-off area contrary to the urban landscape of Bhubaneshwar where he was living earlier.
The film received a grand response from the Odia audience. The film became the highest rated Indian film on IMDB soon after its release. The Odisha government made the film tax free due to the grave theme it laid emphasis on. Due to its immense popularity and the outstanding quality, the makers decided to release the film in Hindi dub and the film was released in 15 theatres nationwide where too it received a good response. The film broke the record for highest grossing Odia film as well.
For two years, the film was unavailable to any streaming platform which caused a lot of fans to worry. Many people who couldn’t watch the film in theatres and wanted to, could not revisit it through any means. Finally with the film being released in OTT, it will surely receive further more viewership and turn out to be the Renaissance for Odia film industry.
Though, a concerning fact may be that the film has been released in a not so well known platform. Even the Odia regional audience is less aware of the film let alone the national population. This limits the film’s horizon in capturing viewers.
Still, as the film has been a very popular one in the industry, due to its inclusion, AAO NXT is sure to receive some popularity and in return grab more and more potential audience for the film.