For a long time now, Bollywood has always been the industry with the most variety of audiences. From the North to the South, Hindi movies are watched across India. But the same perhaps cannot be said about all regional films coming from Tollywood, Kollywood, etc.
So as a result of this wide range of audiences, Bollywood films are getting very good offers for non-theatrical rights. And when you think about this, it makes perfect sense. In today’s time, data has become very accessible with the likes of Airtel and mainly the Jio boom. So, obviously, owing to the massive population of North audiences, Bollywood films are likely to perform well on OTT.
So, from these digital rights alone, most films are recovering more than 80% of their film ‘s budget. With just the digital, satellite, and music rights, the producers are recovering a huge chunk of their money.
As a result of this, many producers are not even concerned about the theatrical performance of the movie. Many are not even putting money and effort into the theatrical release. Just recently, Varun Dhawan and Jhanvi Kapoor’s Bawaal had a direct release on Amazon Prime. Now, this is not just a small film. Both the actors are relatively big stars, and the director, Nitesh Tiwari has given blockbusters like Dangal and Chicchore.
But the question is, in the long run, what is the impact of this? Is this a good sign or a bad sign? Well, the simple fact is, that Indian audiences love the theatre. If the film is good, they will prefer to watch it in the theatres rather than on OTT. Of course, this varies from person to person but, what I am saying is, if a film is good, it will definitely generate more money from the Box Office than from its revenue from the non theatrical rights.
Well, only time can tell what is in store for Bollywood Cinema.
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