The official motion poster for the highly anticipated Ajith Kumar starrer film ‘Valimai’ was unveiled yesterday. And to say that it received a rousing response on social media platforms, would be an understatement. Although the precise release details have not yet been revealed, considering the film’s scale, it is being expected to get a theatrical release.
Having said that, Valimai being a Boney Kapoor and Zee5 presentation, the film will likely stream on Zee5’s OTT platform alongside or a perhaps few days after its theatrical release. It is yet to be confirmed though.
Zee5 has been quite aggressive in bagging rights for a meaningful mix of big-ticket and content-oriented films. Recently, it became the streaming home for superstar Salman Khan’s action film ‘Radhe’ and the film became a rage particularly amongst diehard fans of the actor.
On the other hand, there were content-oriented films like Manoj Bajpayee’s whodunnit ‘Silence’ and Arjun Rampal and Manav Kaul’s courtroom drama ‘Nail Polish’. Moreover, ‘State of Siege: Temple Attack’ led by Akshaye Khanna and techno-horror movie ‘Chathur Mukham’ have also recently started streaming on Zee5. Besides these films, Zee5 had also bagged rights for the immensely buzzy ‘Friends Reunion’ episode.
Zee5 has also acquired the streaming rights for one of the biggest films of the year – S.S. Rajamouli’s magnum opus ‘RRR’ featuring super performers Ram Charan and Jr.NTR in the lead roles alongside Bollywood actors Ajay Devgn and Alia Bhatt in important roles. After the film’s theatrical run in October this year, it was reported that Zee5 would stream the film in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada languages. The combined OTT customer base for these languages is substantial, to say the least. So, it seems to be an intelligent move by the streaming giant.
A few weeks back, it was also in the news that Zee5 was in talks for two upcoming big-ticket releases namely Prabhas starrer period romance film ‘Radhe Shyam’ and Vijay Deverakonda’s ‘Liger’ regarding OTT release. While the former was scheduled for a theatrical release on 30th July, the latter was eying for September 9 release. However, considering the pandemic situation, their actual release dates will likely be confirmed soon. Whether these films might follow a similar release strategy akin to ‘Radhe’ would be interesting to observe.
Into the bargain, it was also reported that the Amitabh Bachchan starrer sports film ‘Jhund’ will also find its home at the Zee5 streaming platform. The romantic comedy film ’14 Phere’ starring Vikrant Massey and Kriti Kharbanda is expected to stream on Zee5 from July 23. So, what other big-ticket and content-oriented movies the Zee5 OTT platform will approach for streaming rights in the near future, remains to be seen.