When Tamil films like Jyothika’s Ponmagal Vandhal and Keerthy Suresh’s Penguin released first on OTT platforms, it was widely expected that several other flicks, including those involving big stars, would follow suit as cases of COVID-19 continued to rise, preventing the reopening of theatres.
Many in the industry had predicted that the debilitating effect of debts and doubts over whether audiences would return to theatres would force producers and big stars to opt for a digital only release.
But four months into the lockdown, Kollywood has not seen any such development, except for a few low-profile films like Yogi Babu’s Cocktail on Zee5.
The issue, as always, is the cost. Producer T.G. Thyagarajan said a theatrical release remained the main source of revenue for big-budget films with big stars.
“It is not viable for both of us — the revenue from an OTT digital release is not enough. At the same time, spending ₹200 crore to buy a big-budget film is not viable for them,” he said. “The value of a star will only be known in the theatres.”
Entertainment journalist Sreedhar Pillai said the movies that were released on OTT platforms were those that were ready for a theatrical release. “Tamil Nadu has a rich culture of [people] watching films in theatres, and it cannot be changed overnight,” he said.
Noting that Akshay Kumar’s Laxmmi Bomb was purchased for ₹120 crore for a digital-only OTT release, he argued that major stars in the regional film industry still preferred a theatrical release to maintain their ‘larger-than-life’ image. “The big stars think that OTT is small, whereas a theatrical release is big. They don’t look at the business part of it. They think that if they release their film on OTT, they become an ‘OTT star’. They prefer a theatrical release even if the OTT platforms compensate them very well,” a senior executive at an OTT platform said.
