Akshay Kumar’s Bell Bottom after having its run in the theatres is now coming to Amazon Prime Video on 16th September, 2021. While Bell Bottom did not perform very well in monetary terms at the box office, it is believed it helped the industry in instilling a new sense of confidence and building hope among the filmmakers and theatre owners. But was it really successful in doing so?
The OTT release of Bell Bottom was a known fact but it’s the timing that’s a little unexpected. Generally, a window of 30-40 days is expected between theatrical and digital releases but it’s not been even a month since Bell Bottom released in cinemas (19th August, 2021) that the star studded film is coming to Amazon Prime Video.
This goes on to show the unpreparedness of the market that is still facing pandemic troubles, which has basically thrown the whole industry into disarray. ‘Bell Bottom’ producers are no exception to this and an early OTT release is just the proof of how the industry can’t run on sentiments alone without the finances.
The same is also easily evident from the postponement of much awaited big budget pan India films like SS Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’ and Yash starrer ‘KGF Chapter 2’ and also how other tentpole Hindi titles like Ranveer Singh’s ‘83’ and Akshay Kumar’s ‘Sooryavanshi’ not announcing any release dates as of yet.
Though ‘Bell Bottom’s release was followed by other Hindi films like Amitabh Bachchan and Emraan Hashmi’s ‘Chehre’ and Kangana Ranaut’s ’Thalaivii’ giving cinemas a shot, to get back to how it was in pre-pandemic times is a long long journey.