This Friday, OTT giant Netflix premiered Bollywood film ‘An Action Hero‘ on its platform. Within hours, social media was inundated with hundreds of tweets praising the film, its plot, premise, Ayushmann Khurrana and Jaideep Ahlawat’s performances, and also Ayushmann Khurrana’s judicious choice of scripts. Unfortunately, all the praise directed at An Action Hero is a case of too little, too late. Read on to find out why we say this.
The reason for this writeup is the sheer, blatant hypocrisy of Indian viewers. When An Action Hero released in theatres late last year, the film saw extremely poor footfalls from movie-going audiences. The film reportedly earned a mere 10+ crores at the worldwide box office. Suffice to say, hardly any of the viewers that are raving about An Action Hero on social media made it to the theatres to watch the film on the big screen. But now, look at the adulation it is receiving on Netflix. Being true cinema-lovers, why not spend a few bucks and watch a good film in the theatres, giving it the theatrical success it deserves.
The same thing has happened with numerous good films that only got their due once they released in theatres. ‘Runway 34’, ‘Brahmastra’, ‘Mukundan Unni Associates’, ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, ‘Kooman’, ‘Dobaaraa’, and scores of other good movies come to mind. All these movies were highly appreciated when they released on streaming, but failed to make a mark in the theatres.
This just proves how fickle-minded the Indian audiences have gotten, especially in the recent few years. A good movie should be given its due on the big screen, where it was made to be enjoyed. Indian cinema has already reasonably evolved so that movies are especially being made for streaming alone. It’s now time for the Indian viewer to evolve too. If this doesn’t happen sooner rather than later, no filmmaker will risk his time, money and effort into making films with a difference. Then we all can gear up to watch clones of KGF Chapter 2 and Kantara in the theatres in the near future.
Even as we write this, another well-made Bollywood film with excellent word of mouth has fallen by the wayside for lack of audiences in theatres. We’re talking of Vishal Bhardwaj’s just-released ‘Kuttey’. The film failed to attract audiences to cinema halls, despite getting good reviews from the few who watched it in the theatres. Mark our words – ‘Kuttey’ will receive the same appreciation and adulation when it releases on streaming – just like ‘An Action Hero’ is getting now on Netflix.
But this scenario is not just a loss for the makers of these films. It’s a loss for good cinema….and for you, the film-lover as well.
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