There are numerous video streaming platforms available in India that have given a new lease of life to films that are not performing at the box office. For many years we have witnessed the pattern of old and new movies released on these digital platforms where the audience has now accepted them after seeing these movies in theatres.
Many super-flop movies have been shown in the ‘trending’ segment of OTT like ‘Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster Returns’, ‘Gori Tere Pyar Mei’, ‘Luck By Chance’ and others. Several video streaming apps like ShemarooMe have also partnered with telecom companies like Vodafone Idea Ltd or MX Player to distribute many old and new movies.
The point of the cinema release was to bring the family together on weekends when the craze to see a celebrity on screen was huge. Bringing the pure thriller example of watching the action scenes on the big screen was a craze where now only 50-60% of people go to these theaters to watch a movie and not motivated to rate the movie but just as a simple output.
This mindset thus limits opportunities for niche genres that are not for mainstream interpretation and can be called experimental films like ‘Lust Stories’ or ‘Ajeeb Dastans’, and have many unknown faces in them. Hence, a digital platform is the best designed space for an individual where the deep meaning of the film can also be reflected and also given recognition.
Several Bollywood movies have gained popularity after their theatrical release and have become hits on the digital screen. Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ was a flop at the box office but was among the ‘Top 10’ films shown on Netflix and was suitable for viewing on the small screen or at home.
While theatrical success is a large measure of a film, smaller credits are often a success factor that is more or less beneficial to the film’s creators. In the digital age, a film can take time to develop or be accepted if it is also outside cinemas where streaming giants throw their algorithms and based on a person’s preferences they can make any flop a super hit on OTT.
Even earlier, several films that failed at the box office were deleted from television. Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Suryavansham’ was a big flop at the box office, but on television, the film was a family hit and has become a popular meme content in today’s generation.
Box office is never the only part of a film’s calculation of its success, where now streaming platforms have taken the rights and lead where newer discoveries are made after the theatrical release, which is a good sign for the producers.
A critically-acclaimed film could never work in theaters, as the plot meanings are not rooted in a commercial direction, but the recognition these genres can get, where they can be discovered later, can to be given to them by these streaming giants.
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