Amitabh Bachchan and Emraan Hashmi’s Chehre was scheduled to release in theatres on April 9. However, the film has been postponed without a new release date due to the rise in the Covid-19 cases across the country.
Producer Anand Pandit clarified his position. He said, “I don’t see theatres opening soon. Our preference would be theatres, but if that is long-drawn process than we might think about OTT. We will take this call maybe after a month.”
He elaborated, “It is about fine tuning your business. Some of the films are made for theatre experience. Sometime economics doesn’t work with OTT with bigger films. When you send your product to OTT, you don’t get the natural upside of the box office. The fun of having everyday collection also misses out. That is why bigger films are little hesitant to come on OTT.”
Will the long delay of films affect the box office result?
“Everything depends on whether the viewers feel confident to come to theatres! But I am very hopeful with the way the vaccination is going on, things will settle down and people will feel more confident to come to theatres. I won’t be surprised if first three-four films will get much better than expected business. Because people are deprived of going out and having good theatre experience. They are really fed up of sitting across the television.”
Has his investment choices changed during the pandemic? “We may have to incorporate pandemic and its long-term effect. Otherwise life is same, everything is same. Only some of your contracts and agreements need to provide this act of God kind of thing. Also, the contingency budget, which is usually 5% of the project, may go up to 10%.”
What is likely to be the trend post-Covid? “Because of the pandemic these OTT platforms have emerged very strong. They have become very powerful, very edgy. Earlier, everybody was making films for theatres and sent their films for OTT afterwards. Now, we are on the crossroad where we will have to decide which film is going where. It will be film made for either theatres or OTT. There would be a very clear line of direction. Artists will be decided keeping in mind your budget, look and feel.”
Is the rise of OTT slowly diminishing the star-culture? “Even OTT stars are there like Manoj Bajpayee, Pankaj Tripathi. So, stardom will never go. People want to watch some particular people that is what I consider stardom. Why Radhe is getting so huge price from OTT, because of the star. So, I don’t think it is diminishing. Rather, more stars will emerge.”
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram.
Comments
0 comment