Mammootty’s upcoming drama, Puzhu, is skipping theatres for a direct-to-OTT release. While we do not know when the film will premiere digitally, we know that SonyLIV has managed to acquire the streaming rights for the movie and with this film, SonyLIV will get its first Mollywood Megastar acquisition. SonyLIV has had a few good Malayalam direct-to-OTT releases so far such as Kaanekkaane, Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam and Madhuram, but none of them has had a Malayalam actor as prominent as Mammootty.
SonyLIV has been releasing some brilliant Malayalam movies directly for streaming so far (as mentioned earlier). The aforementioned three Malayalam movies are good examples of their acquisitions and their “Malayalam film acquisition team” needs to be praised. However, all of their movies have been low budget flicks so far and thus have not been very marketable. While a couple of the movies have featured a few household names like Tovino Thomas, Suraj Venjaramoodu and Joju George – getting the rights for a film featuring a well-known star like Mammootty was the next step for the OTT platform.
Dulquer Salmaan‘s Salute was supposed to be SonyLIV’s next step, but the OTT platform quickly got the streaming rights for Dulquer’s first “collaboration” with his father, Puzhu. Upon Puzhu’s release, Mammootty will finally have a direct-to-OTT release under his belt as well. Both movies are highly anticipated, however, SonyLIV’s acquisition of Puzhu’s streaming rights will earn the OTT platform a lot more Malayalam subscribers.
Dulquer Salmaan’s Salute will premier on SonyLIV the day after tomorrow, on March 18th 2022. Puzhu is expected to release by the end of this month on the same OTT platform, but we will have to wait and see until SonyLIV decides to drop promos regarding the Mammootty starrer.