There should be absolutely no doubt that the Malayalam Film industry is currently the best film industry active in India. The consistency with which they make great films is commendable and unparalleled. Even when it comes to the box office then they are fairly self-sufficient. Movies like Manjummel Boys, 2018 etc are phenomenal hits even without the support of North India. When it comes to theatrical reach the Malayalam film industry is severely behind Telugu and Tamil as they have a wide distribution chain in the North which is yet to be seen from Mollywood producers.
Regardless, if both artistic and commercial aspects of filmmaking are going so well in Mollywood then where’s the problem? The digital platforms must be dying to purchase the rights to those films. No?
Actually, No.
The Malayalam film industry is struggling to find OTT buyers. We are not talking about Aadujeevitham – The Goat Life because Prithviraj Sukumaran had specified that the film would not follow the usual OTT window during the promotional campaign of the film.
But, Mollywood in general is fighting this problem. Amazon Prime and Netflix India, if you see, have stopped purchasing rights to Mollywood films. It was not the case 3 years ago, but it is what it is today. Only SonyLIV to a great extent and Disney+Hotstar to a limited extent are interested in Mollywood films. Sadly, they do not even offer great pricing. When big Hindi films get around 200-250 crores per film, Malayalam films feel lucky to get 15 crores.
Maybe the platforms thought and analysed that Mollywood films get tons of appreciation but the viewership is limited to a handful of elite cinephiles. Quite obviously, industry needs mass to survive and perhaps that’s why Mollywood even after such great work is struggling for OTT buyers.
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