The OTT Industry may be smelling another chance in Indian Cinema. With theatrical business resuming in the South and the Government of India allowing 100% occupancy in the theaters, it should have been a matter of time that Bollywood would also bounce back. In the South, several filmmakers pulled out of the OTT deals at the last minute and are releasing their films in theaters.
As a result, there is a stalemate in Hindi cinema as well with respect to the OTT deals. But it looks like the OTT may get a backdoor chance to sneak in with increasing COVID-19 cases. Already lockdown has been imposed in few districts of the state. If the trajectory does not dip in the coming weeks, a shutdown of theaters is also possible.
In such a case, we can see panic selling of films to the OTT platforms from Hindi filmmakers. Maharashtra which houses the headquarters of Hindi Cinema recorded more than 5,000 cases while the total cases in the country are just over 13,000. Filmmakers reportedly tightened the screws on the shooting locations to ensure the strict implementation of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to keep another wave of infections disrupting the shoots.