Actor Dhanush skips the Box Office

Followed by the footsteps of Actors Surya, Amitabh Bacchhan, Salman Khan and many others who have chosen to release their films on the Over the Top platform, popularly known as OTT is National Award winning Actor Dhanush who has carved a niche for himself in the past 15 years. His latest film “Jagame Thanthiram” will now have a direct OTT release, much to the chagrin of his fans who otherwise celebrate the actor’s film release like a festival.

The film, directed by Karthik Subburaj and co-Produced by Netflix, has been positioned as a “Netflix Original”, making it one of the first few vernacular genre films in India to have this to it’s credit. For the record, a film feat. Actor Dhanush would usually release across 500 screens in India, including the base Tamil Nadu market as well as neighbouring southern states with a 5-7 week run.

Post his outing with ace Actor Amitabh Bachchan in Shamitabh, Dhanush has carved a niche for himself at a national level and this film, shot across the UK has stunning visuals of London in the video song released a few months back as well as in the trailer which released last week. There has been a lot of speculation about the movie and it came as a shock to the actor’s fans and the industry at large which had prepared for a theatrical release in June.

“With Tamil Nadu under lockdown from early-May ‘21 and extended up to 14 June, there may be no signs of reopening cinema theatres at least until September given that Covid positive cases have peaked during the second wave and are slowly abating”, said an official of one of India’s largest multiplex chain requesting annonimity. Therefore, it was but natural to release the film on OTT to keep the fans engaged. The price at which Netflix acquired the rights of the film is unknown though the Industry estimates it to be to the tune of Rs. 45 crores.

Even before the pandemic began, Film Producers started having different buyers for the film’s theatrical, satellite and OTT rights. Since the pandemic impact began in Mar. ‘20 and with theatres shutting down for over 6 months, this trend has peaked with many films being produced exclusively for OTT and the audience lapping them up. For the record, there are 45 OTT players in India vying for views and loyalty.

Dhanush is among the few Indian actors who have a Hollywood outing with his “The Grey Man” alongside Ryan gosling and Ana de Armas and Jessica under production and with this worldwide release on Netflix, the actor could only garner more coverage.