Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushman Khurana’s Gulabo Sitabo is the first big film of Indian Cinema to break the ice. The movie will skip its theatrical release and will directly stream online. Leading OTT Platform, Amazon Prime Video bagged the Streaming Rights and the movie will be premiered on June 12th.
There are reports that several other notable films like Laxmmi Bomb, Jhund, Ludo, Indoo Ki Jawaani, Shakuntala Devi, Gunjan Saxena The Kargil Girl, Sher Shah, Shiddat, Khali Peeli, Mimi, and others are also contemplating to release online directly. We will get to hear some announcements in this month only.
No notable film in Telugu made a move towards a direct online release until now. This may pave the way for films of all the industries to think in that direction. Around a dozen films in Telugu are in complete or almost complete zone. With normalcy not in sight, filmmakers may be forced to think in that direction.
If at all, Gulabo Sitabo does get good talk and brings in more revenues to the OTT Platform, the OTT majors may as well come up with better deals. On the other side, Exhibition Sector is not at all happy with these developments and their response has to be seen.
Only the last week, the Multiplex Association of India (MAI) appealed to studio partners, producers, artists, and content creators to support the cinema exhibition sector by holding their films and releasing them in theaters once they are open again. But then, the Exhibition sector is not in a position to dictate terms in this situation and the producers can not afford to listen to them with a time bomb of Interests ticking on them.
