Theatrical Release? Is that term still relevant? Well, we’re still hungover from year the 2020 which would be remembered for anything but a theatrical release for the movies. Sure enough, at the beginning there were some great movies which graced the silver screens but as the month of April approached everything became stagnant. The theatres were shut down as a safety precautions for the pandemic on loose – Covid-19. And with that, several of the movies were either postponed or took the OTT route.
At first there were only a handful of movies which were supposed to arrive directly on OTT, but as Dil Bechara became a monstrous hit in the platform, there were a flood of movies which were all set to arrive on these platforms. Several biggies like V, Sadak 2, Laxmii, Coolie No.1, Soorarai Pottru, were being touted to provide a blockbuster experience to the viewers from the comfort of their homes. But only a few of them actually succeeded in doing so as most of the big starrer movie turned out to be a dud.
Eventually, the theatres re-opened and some movies slowly decided to go for a theatrical release. The results were as expected as there was a large decline in the footfalls post resumption of theatres. Clearly people are still aren’t keen on moving back to the big screens for a wholesome entertainment. Seeing this, several of the filmmakers have decided to opt for OTT release of their upcoming ventures.
Yes! you read that correctly. Despite the resumption of theatres, even the makers aren’t sure enough to release their movies into the theatres as they aren’t willing to the such a risk. Instead they are playing safe by striking a deal with an OTT platform for a direct release. The OTT platform gladly buys the film at a handsome price. The recent and best examples of this can be the upcoming Mohanlal starred Drishyam 2 and John Abraham & Emraan Hashmi starrer crime drama movie – ‘Mumbai Saga’.
Even the mass movies such as ‘Mumbai Saga’ which are an instant crowd puller aren’t enough to bring back the audience to the theatre, it seems as of now. So the makers too are looking for a secure place where their movie can sustain a week or two in people’s mind instead of taking a huge risk by releasing the movie into theatres where there are low footfalls.
But it still are early days in the year and sure enough we’ll be getting a lot of theatrical action going into the future. The biggest movie around the corner is Vijay starrer ‘Master’ which will be a pan India release. The movie arrives in theatres on 13th January 2021!
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