It's time for the box office to get rocking again

Rajkummar Rao and Kriti Sanon in 'Hum Do Hamare Do'. (Image: Screen grab)

The party could well be over for OTT giants, as far as directly premiering big Bollywood movies is concerned.

While this weekend three major films have arrived straight on OTT (Rashmi Rocket, Sardar Udham, Sanak - Hoe Under Siege), this could well be the end of this trend all as theatres open all over the country from Friday.

With this, movies will start opting for theatrical release first, and the OTT release may be delayed by four to eight weeks - the usual lag before the pandemic forced theatres to close.

Read more: Down with COVID-19, film industry eyes release of two Bollywood films for revival

One needs to give credit where it is due, though. If it were not for OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+Hotstar, SonyLIV and ZEE5, among others, each of which took the lead when it came to procuring Bollywood movies for digital premiere in the last 20-odd months, the Hindi film industry could well have seen a huge recession.

It’s due to these OTTs spending good money to pick up rights for several Bollywood films that the money chain continued, hence keeping a balance between demand and supply.

Full circle

Gulabo Sitabo was one of the first big-star films to opt for direct-to-OTT release. It seems poetic that Sardar Udham from the same producers (Shoojit Sircar, Ronnie Lahiri) is among the last big films to opt for a small-screen release.

Ditto for Vikram Malhotra’s Abundantia Entertainment which released Shakunatala Devi last year (followed by Durgavati and Sherni), and will now be unveiling Chhorii in November.

Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films didn’t bite the bullet during all of 2020. Maddock Films braved releasing Roohi in theatres earlier this year (in the brief window between the two phases of Covid-19 to hit India). Understandably, though, it could not hold out any longer in 2021, and released Mimi and Shiddat in quick succession on OTT. Now, Maddock Films' Hum Do Hamaare Do (Rajkummar Rao, Kriti Sanon, Paresh Rawal, Ratna Pathak Shah) is slated to be among the last movies in straight-to-digital release line-up.

Final call

As for Akshay Kumar, he is now reversing the trend in a way that only he can afford to do - he has a dozen-odd films in different stages of production. Last year his Laxmii was the biggest procurement ever for an OTT, as the Disney+Hotstar release set a record on the digital medium.

Akshay Kumar heralded the opening of cinemas this year with BellBottom, and while the film is still the highest grossing Bollywood release of the last 20 months, it also set records on its Amazon Prime Video release. Now it’s back to theatres for Akshay Kumar, as his Rohit Shetty-directed Sooryavanshi gets set for theatrical release on November 5, the day after Diwali.

Meanwhile, Kartik Aaryan has done something that none of his contemporaries have done in the last 20 months: his film Dhamaka, which was designed as an OTT film by director Ram Madhwani, was completed in record time (less than 20 days), and has now seen 10 months of extensive post-production. Based on the promos of the Netflix film, to be released this week, one expects nothing short of a ‘dhamaka’ on the small screen.

This is the end of an era: big screen extravaganzas are returning to the big screen. With over 40 films already announced - of which 10 are set to release in the remainder of 2021 - Bollywood indeed back to business.

The OTTs have done their job, and in style. It’s now time for the box office to show its magic all over again as well.

Read more: Actor Kartik Aaryan hits a six, with a potential Rs1,000 crore riding on him