One will argue that the pandemic has destroyed a lot of business for the traditional cinema industry as theatres were forced to remain shut and it also caused a lot of financial distress for different sectors. Many of the films were taking the plunge of a direct to digital release which infuriated the owners but the producers who were bearing all the expenses of the film could not hold up the release of their films for any longer.
Radhe has shown the way with its hybrid release which was launched on a pay-per-view basis on Zee 5 and it raked in a humongous amount of business and eyeballs. In international markets too there was a combination of a pay-per-view model along with a theatrical release that helped the film reach a greater audience. Salman Khan is a bigge in the Bollywood industry and his fame is enough to propel people to watch his films even though you may not always get the most logical stunts or sequences.
‘Change is the only constant’ and as much as the people may like or hate it you cannot deny the fact that the digital space is slowly taking over the landscape as the youngsters are flocking these platforms for their dose of entertainment without a lot of hassles and the comfort of their homes. Other big-budget films like Sooryavanshi and 83 too have been thinking about a hybrid release for some time and have been waiting for the response of ‘Radhe’. It feels like it is finally time for Bollywood to accept that the OTT platforms are here to stay and should try and use their global audience and reach their maximum potential.