It has been a month now, since the state-wide lockdown in Kerala was implemented. Although the State Government started easing the restrictions a week ago, the number of Coivd-19 cases increased again, so the lockdown has been re-implemented – this time with “triple lockdown” restrictions. Since the Kerala theatres have been closed for a couple of weeks longer than this lockdown, we do not expect any movie to premiere in the cinema halls of Kerala anytime soon – and certainly not this month of June (almost certain). With more and more Malayalam movies shifting to direct-to-OTT release, this lockdown will become a blessing in disguise for all OTTs.
The Malayalam film industry has been producing cinematic gems for some time now, and most Malayalam films released since the beginning of 2021 can be called gems as well. We have been watching these brilliant films in both theatres and OTTs for some time now, but it has been strictly restricted to only OTTs since the beginning of May. OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, ZEE5, Neestream, among others have been eyeing Malayalam films for some time now and now they have the perfect excuse to convince film producers to stream their films on the aforementioned digital platforms.
Already, films like ‘Operation Java’, ‘Nizhal’, ‘Nayattu’ and ‘Chathur Mukham’ have been released for streaming on multiple OTT platforms, some of them on the aforementioned platforms. With both May and June releasing films being put on hold indefinitely, streaming platforms will now be targeting these films for their platforms. With many to-be-released-in-2020 Malayalam films which were postponed but still not released, we expect quite a few more Malayalam movies to release directly on OTTs in this month.
Theatres in Kerala will remain shut for the foreseeable future as the reported number of coronavirus cases within the state is at an all-time high. For now, we will have to wait and see to know what will happen to the upcoming Malayalam blockbusters – ‘Thuramukham’, ‘Malik’ and ‘Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea’.