Sunny Deol’s OTT Debut: Veteran Bollywood actor Sunny Deol is all set to make his OTT debut with director Siddharth P. Malhotra. According to several media outlets, the project is based on Kevin Bacon’s 2007 movie Death Sentence and will premiere on Netflix.
It seems like Deol’s acting career has found new life. While arguments can be made that Gadar 2 became a mammoth blockbuster due to fans’ nostalgia and affection for the original Gadar, there’s no denying that Jaat’s success turned out to be a surprising package for both audiences and box-office pundits.
Gadar 2 minted over INR 691 crores, whereas Jaat managed to hold its ground with an impressive box office collection of over INR 118 crores. Moreover, Sunny Deol is set to appear in multiple upcoming projects, including Jaat 2, Border 2, Lahore 1947, and Ramayana Part 1.
Now, let’s turn our attention back to Deol’s OTT debut, which will happen via a movie produced by Suparn Verma. Siddharth P. Malhotra, best known for helming We Are Family, is set to direct this action thriller.
The most surprising thing about the actor’s upcoming OTT project is that its source material, Death Sentence (2007), was a major commercial and critical failure during its theatrical run. The Kevin Bacon starrer earned only $17 million against a $10 million budget and holds a ‘rotten’ score of just 20% on Rotten Tomatoes.
While Sunny Deol’s decision to focus on OTT is commendable, the choice of Death Sentence as source material is puzzling. The original film flopped both commercially and critically, raising questions about why the producers (Suparn Verma and team) opted for this particular adaptation. It suggests that either the makers are relying heavily on Deol’s star power or they’re confident in the project’s direct-to-OTT appeal, which lessens the pressure of a theatrical box office performance.
For Deol, it’s a test of his ability to carry a film on a new platform, especially one based on a previously unsuccessful venture. Let’s see what happens. Stay tuned for more updates.