Ravi Teja starrer Mr. Bacchan- The Only Hope, is a Telugu movie that released back in 15th August, has now been released digitally on Netflix as well. The film is about an income tax officer Anand aka Mr. Bacchan and his strategic fight with the local MP (played by Jagapathi Babu). The film was a disaster at the box office, earning about 10% of its huge budget of 70 crores, about 11 crores. The movie was also bashed by critics who called it a sub-par copy of Ajay Devgan starrer Raid. Now, after about four weeks of its release, the film has been released on Netflix.
Earlier this year, we saw yet another Telugu film Buddy starring Allu Sirish and Gayatri Bharadwaj, which too suffered badly in the theatres and critics too rejected the film. But surprisingly, the film got a good amount of viewership after it was released digitally on Netflix. This was because of the unique story the film showcased. People have a speculation that Mr. Bacchan might undergo the same fate as well; and though the film suffered in the theatres, it can survive in the OTT platform.
Though it is worth noting, Buddy provided the audience with a unique and exciting plot. To connect the theme of a living teddy bear to the motive of vendetta and intense action was something people usually had not expected. Whereas, mr. Bacchan relies on the same plot of income tax raid on which we recently had an amazing film like Raid available. Also, the forced romantic angle and other subplots in Mr. Bacchan further decreases its value as a movie. Finally, no film, however good it may be; can’t stand without proper marketing. In the case of Mr. Bacchan, Netflix is hardly working on its marketing.
Hence, it is very less likely that Mr. Bacchan will see a significant change in the viewership compared to the theatres. Though we can expect somewhat better reception of the movie digitally as you need not make an effort extra for it; but expecting a huge increase in viewers is something that does not seem possible as of now.