For the past few weeks, we have been seeing a brotherhood between Disney+Hotstar and Zee5. They are sharing big films which are kinda interesting.
RRR is undoubtedly one of the biggest films to come out this year. The SS Rajamouli magnum opus was a giant not only in theatres but also on OTT. The OTT rights were divided between Netflix and Zee5. While Netflix got the Hindi streaming rights, Zee5 grabbed the audios of the original Telugu along with Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada.
Zee5 had sole rights to the movie initially. Zee5 ultimately shared all four titles with Hotstar and now all the four South Indian audios of RRR are streaming on Disney+Hotstar.
Some time went by and we noticed Kamal Hassan’s Vikram in the Zee5 calendar. The movie is a humongous success and Hotstar had sole rights to not only the original Tamil but also Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi. Now, Hotstar has shared it with Zee5 and all five audio versions will be available for streaming on the 13th of September.
The same is going on with Vikrant Rona which initially belonged solely to Zee5 but is coming on Disney+Hotstar on 16th September.
This brotherhood is giving great diversity to the films, especially those that shift from Zee5 to Disney+Hotstar. Given the subscriber base of Hotstar, it is certain that they gave a large audience to films like Vikrant Rona and RRR.
Regardless, we might see more titles shifting from Zee5 to Hotstar and vice versa. It is a very common practice in the USA, it is intriguing to see the same in India.