In the coronavirus period, OTT saw a big boom which also helped many producers to recover their budgets. At that time every film was sold to OTT at higher prices and more than 50-60% of the budget came from OTT only. But lately, the OTT started affecting the satellite business and theatrical business as well. The satellite and theatrical business are coming to a low as OTT business increased. Allu Aravind, the renowned Telugu Producer says No More Easy Money on OTT.
The OTT Business’ Role Reversal effects Telugu Films and Producers
At the same time, OTT business is also decreasing, we have seen continuously many films being shelved or struck in between deficit releases for producers only because OTT rights are not getting sold as per the expectations and some movies are not able to do business.
OTT Platforms became choosy about the Content
During his upcoming film, Thandel’s promotional interviews, producer Allu Aravind revealed that the OTT business safe days are gone for producers, Now, be it any producer cannot rely on the OTT business blindly. The OTT platforms become very choosy about picking the content, and many films in Telugu and Tamil are struggling as even if they are near the end of the shooting, the OTTs are not buying them and the makers are unable to recover the budgets.
Even Allu Aravind said No More Easy Money on OTT. There are 2 to 3 films that, despite having big stars as the leads, have been unable to sell the OTT rights. This shows which level of OTT business there is. Only for a few producers, few films, few stars, and few directors the OTT platforms are giving preference and they are getting sold but many other films are struggling to do business. Allu Aravind also said that all the producers, as a team, discussed and decided to do films that can work theatrically and not just depend on OTT business numbers.
Coming to Thandel, Allu Aravind said that they were able to close the deal with Netflix in the first 3 months itself. The top producer also said the film’s budget is more than 2 times of Naga Chaitanya’s previous movie’s budget, and the movie needs huge theatrical numbers to be successful, and he believes the movie’s content would work.