As more and more days pass, it becomes more and more inevitable that the Dulquer Salman starrer, ‘Kurup‘ will get a direct-to-OTT release. Although there has been no official announcement released by the production house regarding the possible switch in release medium, enough reports have come out, suggesting that the biographical crime film will premiere on an OTT platform, with most of them leaning towards a Netflix release. If this does end up happening, this Dulquer Salman starring and producing film will set a new OTT record for being the most expensive Malayalam movie to be released directly for streaming.
Fahadh Faasil’s ‘Malik’ is currently the most expensive direct-to-OTT released film, which had a production cost of Rs. 27 crores. ‘Drishyam 2’, the Mohanlal starrer, held the title for the most expensive Malayalam direct-to-OTT released film previously when it was released in January. So if (and possibly when) ‘Kurup’ releases directly for streaming on an OTT platform, it will be the most expensive Malayalam movie to do so with a budget of Rs. 35 crores.
And that is what we think, is likely to happen. The theatrical release of ‘Kurup’ in May was postponed (for the “n’th” time) because of the rise in coronavirus cases in Kerala due to the second Covid-19 wave. This eventually made the State government shut down all public spaces – including theatres (by April end) and by the first week of May, Kerala was under lockdown for 7 weeks (theatres have been closed for over 3 months and counting). And now with the third wave of coronavirus coming up and apparently going to hit a peak of a minimum of 1 lakh cases per day (in India) by October, we do not think that Kerala theatres will open up anytime soon.
This seriously limits the options for ‘Kurup’s’ film producers and a direct-to-OTT release just might be a lesser of two evils. For now, we will have to wait and see.