It was just a matter of time. There was mounting pressure from the digital platforms, and having money is the necessity, a few producers couldn’t ignore. Not all of them could continue to keep the movie in cans with increasing interest rates.
So, we have not one or two, but as many as seven films. They belong to different languages Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. Most, if not all, belong to the small to medium budget category that couldn’t have benefitted with a long delay theatrical release, in any case.
Amazon Prime Video brings all the movies. They all have a release date, as well, barring a couple. Their missing ‘dates’ will be announced soon. It looks like the streaming platform is still waiting for a few more deals, and they have all releases sorted out.
Gulabo Sitabo was the first one to make it official. The movie stars the most prominent names among these seven releases. It features Amitabh Bachchan and the in-form star Ayushman Khurrana in the lead. Shoojit Sircar directs the slice of the life drama. It will debut online on June 12th.
Pon Magal Vandhal is the first movie to start the buzz and debate over the digital release. However, its release date was not confirmed, until now. Well, the Jyothika starrer will be the first to start the OTT wave with its arrival on May 29th.
Penguin starring Keerthy Suresh is the only Telugu connection among the seven movies. It is a Tamil and Telugu bilingual and will start streaming from June 19th.
Two Kannada films, Law and French Biryani will arrive on June 26th and July 24th, respectively. Ragini Chandran heads the former whereas Danish Sait stars in and brings the latter.
And finally, there are two movies, whose release dates are yet to be locked. One of them happens to be first Malayalam official OTT release, Sufiyum Sujathayum starring Aditi Rao Hydari. The other is the keenly awaited Vidya Balan starrer Shakuntala Devi. It is a biopic directed by Anu Menon.
