Jyothika’s latest Tamil film, Pon Magal Vandhal will not have a theatrical release and will be directly released on the OTT platform Amazon Prime as the makers are not keen on waiting till the normalcy is restored. However, that has invoked an unexpected reaction from Theater Owners.
The Theatre Owners Association of Tamilnadu announced that none of Suriya’s 2D Entertainment produced movies will have a theatrical release as they feel this move intends to kill the theaters. This is a bad precedent as the theater owners in the process may kill the film industry.
“Small films can not bear the burden of interests especially since there is no clarity when the normalcy will be restored. If theater owners feel they should endless wait and go bankrupt. This will come to bite the theaters later on as such bankrupt producers may not be able to make films in future,” analysts say.
“Direct OTT Release can not sustain beyond the Lockdown. OTT can not give the invested money back. So once the theaters are open, filmmakers would automatically release the films in theaters. Threatening the producers with a ban at this time is just like theater owners cutting the branch they are sitting,” they add. Hopefully, good sense will prevail.
