The Karthik Aryan starring action thriller, ‘ Dhamaka ‘, is making its way to Netflix. This is old news since the streaming platform bought the streaming rights of the film from the producers, way back in March, on March 1st 2021. Also, according to the recent TUDUM event released by Netflix India, the Korean film remake is expected to release around the globe during Diwali (5th November 2021). However, recent reports suggest that the film producers, as well as Netflix, are planning on preponing the release date of the film, since theatres in Maharashtra are opening by October 22nd 2021.
While the above reports do not mean that ‘Dhamaka’ is releasing in theatres first, the preponing of the premiere date is a little suspicious. Of course, Netflix will not get any monetary benefits if the movie releases in theatres first. And they would likely be against it since it would mean that they will get fewer subscribers interested in this film – and after paying a record amount of money for the streaming rights, Netflix could also possibly sue.
However, there is one route which is beneficial for both parties – dual release. The producers of ‘Dhamaka’ are in a position to release the film on both formats – in theatres as well as on Netflix. Diwali being a nationwide holiday, it would be the perfect time to test out such a release and Netflix should be amicable to this decision.
However, all of this is still mere speculation at this point. With Maharastra theatre reopening weeks away and since it is an unreliable format after the second wave of the pandemic, ‘Dhamaka’ could very well just end up being a direct-to-OTT release. For now, we will have to wait and see. A theatrical release is not completely out of the cards, however.