Nitesh Tiwari’s ‘Bawaal’ has proved to be a hit for Prime Video India. The streaming giant announced on social media this morning that the Varun Dhawan – Janhvi Kapoor starrer has become one of the most-watched films on the platform this year. Prime Video India posted the news on its official Instagram handle, in the stories section.
Bawaal’s success on Prime Video India only proves one thing – bad publicity is indeed the best publicity, especially in the fickle world of streaming entertainment. The amount of flak and controversy that Bawaal kicked up post its release on Prime Video seems to have had a cascading effect on the number of people watching Bawaal.
More and more people have flocked to Prime Video to watch Bawaal, just to find out what the ruckus is all about. In the process, Bawaal has become the second most-watched Prime Video original movie of 2023. Controversy seems to have worked wonders for the film!
Most people will know that Bawaal’s controversial plot device of drawing parallels between a dysfunctional marriage and the horrors that took place at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the World War II Holocaust has drawn the ire of all and sundry. From critics and audiences, to organisations such as the Jewish Human Rights organisation Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), and the Israeli Embassy in India, as well as the Israeli Ambassador Naor Gilon, have lambasted the ill-conceived plot of Bawaal.
Now that Bawaal has set a 2023 viewing record of sorts for Prime Video, it seems bad publicity is the best publicity indeed!