This caused a wide-spread expectation that several star-studded movies will also follow suit as the cases regarding Covid-19 patients kept increasing, stopping theaters from reopening any time soon. Also the crippling nature of rising debt and the hesitation of the general public returning to theaters even after lockdown, would force producers to digitally release their films.
Fast forward four months and except for a few low profile films like the Yogi Babu starrer “Cocktail” on Zee5, Kollywood has not shown much interest towards OTT platforms. They have mostly just stayed put throughout the lockdown and teasing fans with a poster here and a trailer there to keep fans interested. But why have they not opted for an OTT release to get a return on their investment?
The issue is the investment to profit ratio. Movies with big stars and big budgets get their main source of profit from theatrical releases. It is not possible for 200 crore to be spent to buy a big budget film by an OTT digital company says producer T.G.Thyagarajan. It is neither viable for the OTT company nor for the big stars, who will see the digital release as a diminution to their star value.
Tamil Nadu is a state that has a rich theatre watching culture and filled with theatre buffs. They watch their favourite stars performing on the big screen and the atmosphere it creates is not something that can be changed or forgotten overnight.
This ‘Star Value’ which theatrical releases offers big actors will be hard to be matched by the digital releases.