Suriya‘s ‘Jai Bhim’ could easily be called the most anticipated Tamil OTT release this month. The social legal drama featuring Suriya in the lead, with Rajisha Vijayan and Prakash Raj in supporting roles dropped on 1st November at 10pm and has become an instant hit. Bankrolled by Suriya and Jyothika under their production banner 2D Entertainment, the film is written and directed by journalist-turned-filmmaker TJ Gnanavel (of ‘Kootathil Oruthan’ fame). Based on true events from a 1993 legal battle, the film features Suriya in the role of a lawyer fighting for the rights of a tribal group. With a hard-hitting plotline and great performances, the film’s early reviews itself had it buzzing like no other.
Now, as part of the four film deal between the actor Suriya’s production house and Amazon Prime Video, ‘Jai Bhim’ saw a direct-to-OTT release on the streaming giant, just ahead of Diwali. The film is without doubt a massive OTT success, but we at Binged couldn’t help but contemplate what may have happened had the film released in theatres, especially for Diwali, despite the clash with the two festive releases, Rajinikanth’s ‘Annaatthe’ and the Arya-Vishal starrer ‘Enemy‘.
Trade analysts have had a go at picking their favourites and predicting the possible box office numbers, however, a comparative analysis done by us, tells a whole other story. To quantify the buzz surrounding all three films in question, we have taken into consideration the total number of views for the film’s official trailer released on YouTube (at the time of writing the article) and look at what we’ve found!
1. Enemy
Medium: In Theatres
Total Number of Trailer Views: 3.5 Million
Time Span- 1 week
2. Annaatthe
Medium: In Theatres
Total Number of Trailer Views: 10 Million
Time Span- 5 days
3. Jai Bhim
Medium: OTT
Total Number of Trailer Views: 22 Million
Time Span- 1 week
So, as we can see from the data above, Suriya’s ‘Jai Bhim’ clearly dominates the slate. The film’s trailer has garnered much more attention and views, most importantly, within a similar time span, defeating the other two contenders by a massive margin. We can’t help but believe that a theatrical release for the film may have done wonders, made history and taken Suriya’s stardom to another level altogether! Well, as for ‘Annaatthe’ and ‘Enemy’, the two movies will fight it out for a November 4 release and fans will get to witness an ultimate festive clash this Diwali.
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