Last week’s hot news of Suriya’s Soorarai Pottru and Nani’s V biting the bullet and deciding to release directly on OTT has shaken and stirred up the entertainment world. The move makes them the first mainstream South stars to skip theatres and release their films directly on digital. With the Covid-19 pandemic nowhere near to abating in India, and theatres still shut even in UNLOCK 4, the entertainment industry is in a tizzy with news of other Tamil biggies going the OTT way.
The biggest of these is understandably ‘Master’. Yes, there’s major buzz in industry circles that Master may premiere directly on OTT, instead of waiting for theatres to reopen. Even if theatres reopen, there’s a chance that footfall will be relatively low. Covid fear will likely keep audiences away. Master releasing on OTT is a major loss for theatre-owners monetarily, given the undeniable box office draw of its star Thalapathy Vijay. But there’s another, not so obvious reason why theatre-owners don’t want Master to premiere on OTT.
The Covid-19 outbreak has literally spawned a new-found enthusiasm for OTT platforms in India. This country of avid traditional TV watchers has seamlessly made the shift to streaming TV. With TV shows and theatres on a Coronavirus-induced sabbatical, even those over sixty – TV watchers once upon a time – have happily taken to OTT platforms as their new source of entertainment in OTT platforms. The effect has been aggravated by the direct to digital releases of films of popular actors – both Hindi and regional.
Now, sitting at home, viewers can watch First Day First Shows of the movies of the topmost Indian actors. From Amitabh Bachchan, the granddaddy of Indian cinema, to fiery femmes Vidya Balan, Jyotika and Keerthy Suresh, to dashing heartthrobs Akshay Kumar, Suriya and Nani, all their movies premiered or are slated to premiere on streaming platforms rather than in theatres. The entire family can watch the latest movies at a fraction of the cost of watching the movie in theatres. And viewers are loving it!
So much so, that watching film premieres on streaming has become a habit with them. A habit that is becoming increasingly hard to break. Every online poll conducted by different production houses to gauge audience wishes has thrown up the same result – they preferred a direct to OTT release for all the movies they were quizzed on. This gradual habituation to OTT premieres of movies that are best enjoyed on the big screen — such as Gunjan Saxena, and the upcoming Soorarai Pottru, Bhuj, Laxmmi Bomb — is the real worry for theatre-owners. A big release in theatres once the Covid-19 outbreak settles down might hurry audiences back to theatres. But where are those biggies? If Master, Sooryavanshi and 83 end up on OTT too, there will be no movie release that will “break the habit” and bring audiences back to theatres.
Also, shooting has only just resumed. There is no pipeline of movies to be screened. And the next potential, “habit-breaking” big movie might not be seen until Diwali 2021. Imagine what it really means for the theatre business. An audience demographic that is happy — and “habituated” — to watch the biggest, larger than life releases on OTT is their actual, lasting concern— the real wolf at the door of theatre-owners!
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