Here’s The Next Round Of Direct To OTT Movie Releases – V, Coolie No 1, Kilometers And Kilometers, And More!
It has been nearly 5 months since India has been under a country wide lockdown. The entertainment industry, primarily the heavily invested movies sections, has been suffering due to the no theaters for the public to view long-completed movies.
Many big production companies have held out and weathered the lockdown, but some have buckled and released their movies through streaming platforms, mainly Netflix, Amazon and Disney+Hotstar. Jahnvi Kapoor’s Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, Vidya Balan’s Shakuntala Devi, Amitabh Bachchan – Ayushmann Khurrana’s Gulabo Sitabo, late Sushant Singh Rajput’s Dil Bechara, Jyothika’s Ponmagal Vandhal, and many more.
As the lockdown is coming to a close, more production houses have shifted focus on releasing their movies digitally.
These are the ones which are confirmed, either officially, or from trusted sources:-
1) Keerthy Suresh starrer Good Luck Sakhi has been bought by Amazon Prime for a Direct To Digital release. Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, it also stars Aadhi Pinisettyand Jagapathi Babu in pivotal roles.
2. Starring Tovino Thomas, the travel movie Kilometers and Kilometers will premier on Disney+ Hotstar on 20th August.
3. Dulquer Salman produced Maniyarayile Ashokan will release on Netflix on 31st August.
4. V, Nani’s 25th outing will see him portraying the antagonist. Reports suggest that the movie will premiere on September 5th on Amazon Prime.
5. Tamannaah Bhatia’s Telugu film, That Is Mahalakshmi, the official Telugu remake of National Award-Winning Bollywood blockbuster Queen, will release directly on OTT, on Amazon Prime Video.
6. Even the official Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam remakes of Queen are going straight to OTT. Ramesh Aravind has directed the Tamil and Kannada versions. The Tamil version is called Paris Paris and stars Kajal Aggarwal as the lead. The Kannada version is called Butterfly and stars Parul Yadav as primary protagonist. Lastly, the Malayalam version, named Zam Zam, is directed by G Neelakanta Reddy and stars Manjima Mohan as lead. All three have been bagged by Amazon Prime Video.
7. Miss India, starring Keerthy Suresh, is also reported to have been bought by a streaming platform. Written and directed by Narendra Nath, it also stars Jagapathi Babu, Rajendra Prasad and Naveen Chandra, among others. The film has been produced by Mahesh S Koneru under East Coast Productions.
8. Lastly, Coolie No 1, the reboot of the original Govinda version, has been bought by Amazon Prime Video. It stars Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khan as leads.
It is a whole new world out there, especially for the entertainment industry. With the streaming services going strong, it is up to filmmakers to know which movies to release theatrically and which to send for direct OTT release, even after the lockdown had ended. Still, with no more theaters presently, we hope that more film makers wisen up and release their movies digitally.
Watch this space at Binged.com for further updates on this.
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