Kerala was one of the last Indian states to lift the nationwide lockdown restrictions and to allow theaters to be opened for the general public, albeit with only 50% capacity. And even after that, the Kerala Film Chamber decided to not open the theaters in Kerala; but this was due to fact that the state government did not provide any relief funds or give any tax leeway while the coronavirus pandemic was still on going and the fact that the state of Kerala only allowed audiences to enter theaters in Jan – a full two months before the rest of their neighbouring states decided to open their cinema halls. Because of this, multiple Malayali cinema owner associations have banded together to place restrictions on the movies that are going to be released in Kerala – specifically OTT restrictions.
Obviously the pandemic affected other parts of the film industry, with the film producers being major victims after the cinema owners. But thanks to the rising popularity of OTTs and streaming services during the pandemic, multiple small and medium budget movies were allowed to be distributed by them during these troubled times. And most Kerala theater owners were fine with that since, like them, these film producers were incurring heavy losses and had to do what they had to for survival.
But with films like Master going for an early OTT turnover after its initial theatrical release, Netflix taking Dhanush’s Jagame Thandhiram straight to OTT and Mohanlal’s Drishyam 2 being made solely for Amazon Prime Video, many Kerala theater owners feared that due to the quick OTT turnover, there will not be enough movie watchers coming to the theaters to watch the film, since it can be available on a streaming platform just weeks after the film hits the theaters. So to prevent this, Kerala Film Chamber, Distributors /Producers Association and FEUOK together made an announcement that all Malayalam movies have to be run in theaters for a minimum of 42 days before it can go to a streaming platform for the online and overseas audience. And in hindsight, it might be a harsh decision, but OTTs will not be able to pull in the money theaters will be able to, even at 50% capacity.
This announcement/ decision is targeted mainly at the big budget films and movies starring superstar and big-name actors. Movies which are low-to-medium budget and the ones which will find it hard to join the jam-packed list of big budget films will be allowed to go straight to OTT due to their lack of immediate appeal and for the quick money producers can make so as to settle their loans which they might have incurred due to the coronavirus pandemic.
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
