Ever since India went under lockdown since March 25, the multi-billion dollar film industry is torn between holding off new releases or going the OTT way
Led by Bollywood, the multi-billion dollar Indian entertainment industry, is steadily gravitating towards digital platforms since India went into lockdown in March. While some big ticket releases are scheduled for release in the coming months, it remains to be seen whether showbiz can completely ignore theatres given the high ticket prices.
While Shoojit Sircar’s « Gulabo Sitabo » featuring Amitabh Bachchan and youth icon Ayushman Khurrana is slated for a June 12 release on Amazon Prime, recent rumours suggest that several other movies could follow suit soon on Netflix and Disney+ HotStar.
The last movie to get a theatrical release prior to the lockdown was Irrfan Khan’s Angrezi Medium and the movie premiered on Disney+ HotStar in the first week of April and has been enjoying an extended run at the top of the charts. No doubt, the passing of lead actor Irrfan Khan has contributed an element of nostalgia.
Industry sources say that losses due to the lockdown could be in the range of Rs.3000 to Rs.3500 crores (approximately INR 30-35 billion). With more than 40 OTT platforms to choose from, movie makers are no doubt shifting their allegiance to digital, given the explosive growth it has seen in the post-Covid-19 lockdown.
The exorbitant cost of production and distribution of movies and the over-reliance on satellite rights as a source of revenue could become a crucial factor going forward. The big production houses may prefer to sit out the Covid-19 impact, whereas the smaller ones might gravitate towards the OTT platforms, hoping for a theatrical re-run.
Top directors such as Kabir Khan and Rohit Shetty went on record that they had no intention of going the OTT way with their upcoming releases 83 and Sooryavanshi respectively.
