Films which did not do well at theatres are saved by the OTT release. For some medium-budget movies, sixty per cent of the investment is being recovered from the OTT revenue.
Godfather the Chirnajeevi movie has already recovered half of the investment by way of OTT. Suresh productions has sold some movies directly to the OTT and made profits.
So OTT is saving the film-makers in many ways. Apart from the theatres, the producers have got another window called OTT where they can exhibit the movie and get revenues.
Over the years, theatres, TV, satellite, DVDs, OTT… all of it has come and flourished. I think cinema theatres and OTT will both co-exist… because people now have more options to get entertained. More the merrier.”
OTT platforms are the new cinema halls for moviegoers… we mean movie watchers – you don’t need to go anywhere now to watch films, other than from one room to another in your home.
“The emergence of OTT as a credible force has not yet had any significant impact on the idea of a star. It has its own advantages but nothing can replace the magic of watching a movie on the big screen,” a popular producer says.
So, the stars are still big. Of course, a lot has changed. People can connect their smartphones to smart TVs to watch movies, series and everything.
But this has been there for some time now. It’s nothing new, Natti Kumar says, emphasising that stars and big screens would never go out of vogue.
But for the deep-pocketed OTT biggies, it’s a different way to garner eyeballs. Unlike TV, where revenue comes in from DTH subscriptions as well as ad revenue, OTT depends on subscriptions alone.
