After the release of Devara Part 1, the Indian Film Industries seems to have taken a short recess. For the first week of October, one cannot observe a single national film being released either in Bollywood or in the Southern region (which account for the nationwide films most apart from Bollywood). This one-week window will see some regional films thriving as the people won’t have a nationwide film to watch other than the older releases.
The Odia industry will especially benefit from this window. Among all the regional film industries, it is one of the least recognized and has the least viewership even in its native state Odisha. The one-week gap of national films will lead to the regional cinema of the state being given more screens and hype than they usually receive. Looking at this opportunity, the Odia filmmakers too are attempting to grab the opportunity and are being supported for it on a full scale.
Four Odia movies, that’ll be released on the first week of October, Friday, will be screened by one of the greatest national cinema chains- PVR INOX. The films are Sanam Tu Suhana (releasing 4th October) and Villain- Life of a Gangster and Karma, Karma and Khokha Bhai Tama Pain (releasing 9th October). With the approval of PVR INOX to screen them, these movies will expect a greater amount of audience which will increase their margins of success. Out of these films, three are projects with substantially low star power, but Karma has a huge cast starring Anubhav Mohanty and Suryamayee Mohapatra. The film is an action-thriller and with it being screened in more screens, one can expect the film to break certain records in Odia box office.
Hopefully, this widow will provide Odia films with some exposure that they really need. If good enough, the films will encourage the national chains to screen more films of the Odia industry, which is currently a very rare thing to see.