After its direct-to-OTT release speculations, Srijit Mukherji’s cricket-based sports film ‘Shabaash Mithu’ starring Taapsee Pannu was released in theatres on 15th July. The film is a biopic based on the inspiring life story of former women’s Indian National cricket team captain Mithali Raj, who had led India to the finals of the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup. However, despite favourable reviews from multiple critics, the movie has failed to attract audiences to theatres. After a poor box-office opening, ‘Shabaash Mithu’ is still struggling to hit a boundary with respect to its theatrical performance.
The insipid box-office response of ‘Shabaash Mithu’ has ostensibly set a worrying trend for the theatrical release of cricket-based films in India. Two recently released and really well-made films namely ‘83’ and ‘Jersey’ had also failed to churn massive box-office numbers in spite of extremely positive critical feedback. Their semi-clash with ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ and ‘KGF 2’ respectively might have been one reason for their box-office performance.
Interestingly, when the same films – Kabir Khan’s ‘83’ starring Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor starrer ‘Jersey’ were later released on OTT platforms, they were quite well received by the OTT audiences. Both ‘83’ and ‘Jersey’ consistently featured on the Netflix top ten films list.
Watching cricket-based films like ‘Shaabash Mithu’, ‘83’, and ‘Jersey’ in a theatre is supposed to amplify the movie watching experience, which is considered by many viewers as akin to watching a live match in a stadium. But ironically, it seems that Indian OTT platforms like Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar have shown serious potential to become the saving grace for cricket-based movies following their dismal theatrical run.
On the other hand, if we take the example of Shreyas Talpade’s film ‘Kaun Pravin Tambe?’, the movie was released directly on the Disney+ Hotstar OTT platform and garnered acclaim from a large segment of audiences and critics. So, Kaun Pravin Tambe’s direct-to-OTT release turned out to be a good decision instead of a theatrical release. Because in case the film hadn’t performed well at the box-office, it may have not got the right price from the OTT platform.
So, the box-office failures of cricket-based films like ‘Shabaash Mithu’, ‘83’, and ‘Jersey’ will make Indian filmmakers rethink – firstly about whether to make such films in the first place or not. If yes, then a cost-benefit analysis of releasing the movie in theatres or to release them directly on OTT. And thirdly, regarding the budget and star cast of the cricket-based film, because ultimately that’s the most important factor for the film’s profitability. It remains to be seen whether ‘Shabaash Mithu’ picks up box-office pace now and how the film will later perform on OTT. In any case, OTT platforms have proved their mettle to supplement the films’ revenues for post-theatrical OTT release and direct-to-OTT release, if not being their saving grace exactly. And most likely, the trend is here to stay.