The first day of the new year has started with the news of shock for the film world. The release date of the most expensive film of the year ‘RRR’ has been postponed. However, trade analyst Raj Bansal believes that the theaters will return from February because by then the effect of the new variant of Covid will be over. This is the reason, the films releasing in the month of February has not moved forward. Himself ‘Badhaai Do’ director Harshvardhan Kulkarni said that his film will hit the theaters only on February 4. We will not release it directly on OTT.
February has Taapsee Pannu’s ‘Shabash Mithu’, Adivi Shesh’s ‘Major’, Alia Bhatt’s ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ and Ranveer Singh’s ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’. March also has big budget films of big stars like ‘Bachchan Pandey’, ‘Shamshera’, ‘Bhool Bhulaiya-2’ and ‘Anek’. Their makers are also sticking to theatrical release. Disappointing postponement of ‘RRR’ Raj Bansal says, ‘The news of postponement of ‘RRR’ on January 1 was disappointing, but on the same date, three films collected 18 crores at the box office. Where ’83’ collected 7 crore 25 lakhs, at the same time, the business of ‘Pushpa’ was 6 crores in Hindi and 4 crores 75 lakhs of Spiderman. In such a situation, there is an influx of audience in cinemas.
Sources related to ‘Jersey’, told that the makers of Jersey, said that they are sure to issue a statement to keep its release in theaters only, but they consider ’83’ as a case. Netflix had agreed to give 150 crores on ’83’ only last year, but the producers were adamant to bring it to theaters only. Now OTT has halved the rates, because the collections in theaters have not been very strong. Makers expected that ’83’ would get 120 crores from Indian cinemas in just one week of release, but the figure could not even cross 80 crores. Therefore, the makers of ‘Jersey’ are multiplying on the offer of 70 crores to 85 crores from OTT.
The compulsion of ‘RRR’ is not daring to bring the theater ‘RRR’ on OTT. According to trade pundits, ‘It is because the cost of this film itself is 550 crores, which Rajamouli has also been speaking on record. The strategy of the digital platform has been to buy half a dozen projects in that budget instead of one. Therefore, the challenge and compulsion of the makers of ‘RRR’ is to release in theaters only. Nothing can be said at this time in which month ‘RRR’ will release, no decision has been taken yet. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh says, “Nothing can be said at this point of time. Everything will be decided in view of the Covid cases. There are certainly more low-budget movies in February. Then there is scope to bring ‘RRR’. If he further chooses the date of March or April, then he is sure to clash with ‘Bachchan Pandey’, ‘Shamshera’, ‘Bhool Bhulaiya-2’, ‘Anek’ and other films. Apart from ‘RRR’, ‘Radhe Shyam’ and ‘Prithviraj’ are also likely to slip ahead. In such a situation, there is a possibility of a clash between both of them. The decision of the makers of ‘RRR’ will be interesting, apart from Taran, other trade pundits are of the opinion that it will be beneficial to bring a big budget film like ‘RRR’ in the month of September. That’s because only two films ‘Brahmastra’ and ‘Vikram Veda’ will come in that month. Then all three will get an open run. It will be interesting to see what decision the makers of ‘RRR’ take.
2022-01-03
