Much to the chagrin of theater owners who have recently expressed frustration over filmmakers opting to release their finished films on OTT platforms, more voices in the industry supporting the change have risen lately.
Aside from the renowned director, producer Karan Johar, a slew of other people associated with the industry including Apurva Asrani, Taapsee Pannu, and Hansal Mehta has deemed this move as the need of the hour, adding that the industry needed to come together in a bid to help each other pass these unprecedented times, triggered by the nation-wide coronavirus lockdown.
It all started when Shoojit Sircar’s long-awaited Gulabo Sitabo was announced to come directly on Amazon Prime Video last week. This led to a war of sorts between filmmakers and theater owners when the next day it was announced that Vidya Balan starrer Shakuntala Devi is slated to premiere on Prime Video as well. Amazon Prime Video India has already released Gulabo Sitabo teaser on its official Instagram page.
Top players including PVR and INOX strongly criticized Gulabo Sitabo makers and it is then that several artistes came together to support the film’s producers and slammed the theater owners for making harsh statements. The Producers Guild of India released a statement, noting that it was disappointed to garner inconsiderate messaging from some of its exhibition sector colleagues.
The MAI (Multiplex Association of India) has already appealed to producers, artistes, content creators, as well as studio partners to support the cinema exhibition sector by postponing their films’ release date until the theaters reopen once again.
