With the rise in Covid-19 cases during this worldwide “second wave” of the (globally affected) virus as well as the recent restrictions set up by the State Government of Kerala, there is a very real chance that there will be no theatrical releases in the aforementioned South Indian state, during the next big release date – the release date of Eid which occurs during mid-May. Already multiple Indian movies have shifted their release dates but with the lockdown plans slowly coming into effect in Kerala, we will even likely witness many theatres getting shut down during this time period.
May 13th is the day when Eid al-Fitr is observed in 2021. Mohanlal‘s ‘Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea’ had to postpone its recent release date of May 13th (Eid) by 3 months (to August). And now, even Nivin Pauly’s much anticipated ‘Thuramukham’ is rumoured to face a similar conundrum as well. With a lockdown looking imminent, ‘Thuramukham’s’ production house is said to be making plans to scrap the theatrical release entirely and drop the film directly on an OTT platform. Even ‘Marrakar’ is said to be looking into a simultaneous release on both theatres and OTT.
With the popularity of Nivin Pauly and his co-stars in this upcoming film, ‘Thuramukham’ will have no issues with OTT suitors. Streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar among many others will line up to get this historic biopic on their digital platforms. But the question is – will the producers wait to see if the lockdown will go into effect or decide to not risk it and meet with the OTT representatives before the lockdown comes into place? Either way, if said lockdown goes through, we might be looking at Nivin Pauly’s first-ever direct-to-OTT released film.
Only Fahadh Faasil’s ‘Malik’ has not changed its Eid release date (among the big-budgeted Malayalam films). Of course, it might not even be in the hands of the production house if the Covid situation worsens around the state, but for now, Eid has only one major Malayalam release planned for 2021. We will have to wait and see if it will happen or not.
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