It is well known that during the pandemic, OTT platforms came as a savior for the industry. When films were not able to reach theaters during the lockdown, then these OTT platforms should be the only support. After this, many producers not only got a great option to release their films on OTT instead of putting them in cold storage, but it also made them huge profits. But soon OTT platforms started becoming a dumping ground for Bollywood, where they started releasing films one after the other, which were not confident about theatrical release, but now OTT platforms have also become very choosy. Many rules have been changed for the release of the film. Urmila Kori’s special report on this investigation.
Director Rajkumar Santoshi said this
Till some time ago it was said that films recover their cost. Apart from satellite rights, music rights, these days makers also have the option of OTT, but considering the current situation, OTT platforms are not easily ready for this. Director Rajkumar Santoshi recently made the film ‘Bad Boy’ with Mithun Chakraborty’s son Namoshi. Rajkumar Santoshi said in the conversation that he wanted to release his film on OTT instead of releasing it in theatres, but no OTT supported. The makers of director Sudhir Mishra’s film ‘Afwah’ also wanted the OTT release of their film. If you look at the current box office, only two to three films are being released every week, while the box office figures of films in theaters are not hidden from anyone.
What do industry experts say?
If industry experts are to be believed, then OTT has decided its stand. He is no longer buying the films which are being offered to him directly, rather he says that the producer should first release the film in theaters, only then he will consider buying those films. He will no longer buy films at the cost of the makers. Only those films will be selected for OTT release, which have passed the test of theatre. If the film has done decent business in theaters for a week or two, they can be bought at the cost of the producer. On the other hand, if the audience completely rejects the film, then OTT will buy that film at its own cost. This price may be slightly higher or lower than the cost of the film or it may not be bought.
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The failure of big films has made these rules
In an interview, actor John Abraham had said that to be honest, it is a common belief in the industry that if an actor is not confident about his film, he dumps it on OTT. Almost 90 per cent of the films that opted for OTT release were bad. Everyone used the pandemic as a crutch and is continuing to do so. If you believe the figures, then this statement of John Abraham is also correct. After Covid, theaters were reopened from September 2021, but many Bollywood actors and their films chose OTT release only. Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit’s film ‘Maja Ma’ proved to be ineffective on OTT. Akshay Kumar’s ‘Puppet’ was also rejected outright by the people, while Deepika Padukone’s ‘Gehraiyaan’ also proved to be superficial on OTT. Apart from the films that were released directly on OTT, Shamshera, Brahmastra’s fate also did not do well on OTT, while the makers sold these films to OTT at a huge cost.
Theater unsuccessful films have also been successful on OTT
Under its new rules, OTT will choose films based on their success in theaters, but statistics also show that many times films have failed at the ticket window, but these films rocked OTT. Lal Singh Chadha, Runaway 37, Jersey, Jhund have been featuring in the list of top 10 films for several weeks on their respective OTTs. At the same time, trade analyst Komal Nahata said, this rule is necessary. It will promote good content somewhere. If good things are given priority, then people will give more importance to them. Instead of investing money on any film, OTT wants to add good films to its platform. If there will be good films, then its subscribers will also increase. This is clearly a matter of business. Filmmaker Vipul Shah said, films are not running at the box office, that’s why OTT has come up with new rules. If films start running after six months, then this rule will also be changed by OTT. In the end, success is what matters.
