One of the most affected industry due to lockdown is the Bollywood industry. Lockdown has hugely impacted the movie business. Bollywood producers have incurred huge losses this season, with many big releases like Akshay Kumar’s action cop drama Sooryavanshi, Salman Khan’s super action flick Radhe getting postponed. Due to lockdown and impose of social distancing norms, all multiplexes and theatres are closed. This has been the worst year for Bollywood in the last 70 years. Movies are the most exciting form of entertainment. Nothing can match the experience of watching a movie in a theatre or a multiplex. Those whistles, claps, and applause when your favorite stars are on screen is an incredible experience for any moviegoer. But due to lockdown people are confined and television is the only form of entertainment left for them. But in the last two years, Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms which are online video or movie streaming platforms have taken over. There is a big craze for OTT platforms and people are now preferring OTT platforms over cinema halls. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar are big players in the OTT platform industry.
Producers are not left with no option but to release their movies directly on OTT platforms to avoid any losses. Recently two days back there was a huge announcement. Disney Hotstar has bagged the rights to stream some of the biggest movies of 2020. This includes Akshay Kumar and Kiara Advani starrer Laaxmi Bomb, Ajay Devgn, Sonakshi Sinha, and Sanjay Dutt’s Bhuj: The pride of India, Sushant Singh Rajput, Sanjana Sanghi, and Saif Ali Khan starrer Dil Bechara, Sanjay Dutt, Alia Bhat, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Pooja Bhatt’s hugely anticipated Sadak which is a sequel of Sanjay Dutt’s 1991 blockbuster Sadak. Abhishek Bachchan’s The Big Bull, Vidyut Jammwal’s Khuda Hafiz among others. Any big budget movie will easily get more than 30 crore by selling its online satellite rights. As multiplex and theaters are closed temporarily this is the best time for OTT platforms to establish their footprint in the global market and take control of the movie distribution rights market. The distributors and exhibitors have raised their concerns and heavily criticized the decision of movie producers to release their films on OTT platforms instead of going for a theatrical release. But producers have assured them that this is a temporary phase and once the lockdown is over people will come back to theatres only. This has been proven with the failure of Amitabh Bacchan and Ayushman Khurana starrer Gulabo Sitabo which failed to woo the audience and mostly got negative reviews. This proves the audience prefers to watch only web series on OTT platforms and for movies no doubt they will choose theatres over OTT platforms. It is the audience that decides the fate of any movie and people still love to watch their favorite superstars on the big screen only. But this has resulted in a big war between the producers and distributors. The movie business is driven by box office numbers. So, ultimately producers will prefer theatrical release after the lockdown ends. And the big movies like Sooryavanshi and Radhe will decided the future of multiplex and theatres.
Yukti Kumar @ Samacharline