Triangular Deepavali clash on OTT

‘Laxmii’, ‘Ludo’ and ‘Chhalang’ are the Bollywood films releasing next week

Every year, big-ticket films try for a festival release, and Deepavali is known for mammoth clashes between movies and the actors starring it in for over 20 years.

Usually, two releases are common (‘Don’ / ‘Jaan-E-Mann’, ‘Om Shanti Om’ / ‘Saawariya’, and ‘Son Of Sardaar’/ ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ among others). But there have been years where there were three films out, like in 2009 ‘All The Best’, ‘Blue and Main Aur Mrs Khanna’, and even four movies as in ‘Aitraaz’, ‘Veer-Zaara’, ‘Naach’ and the colourised ‘Mughal-E-Azam’ in 2004.

Obviously, every film did not do well, and Deepavali per se, was no guarantee for success. It was just that the audience’s mood, means and money to spend at movie halls was much more. But, as always, content and word-of-mouth decided the fates of the films.

This year is different yet not different. For one, with movies committed to OTT platforms because of obvious reasons, they have wisely decided to stagger the releases. The one with the biggest potential for business and audience quantum, ‘Laxmii’, the remake of the Tamil film ‘Kanchana’, releases on November 9, the Monday before Deepavali, on Disney+ Hotstar.

As there were protests by hardcore fanatics that the title (Laxmmi Bomb) was sacrilegious as Laxmi was a goddess, the producers’ conglomerate of Akshay Kumar, actor Tusshar, Shabina Khan and Fox Star with the channel changed it to ‘Laxmii’. However, no one bothered about the fact that every year, fireworks in the market have names like Lakshmi Bomb.

Nevertheless, the film’s trailer and buzz is high and with a superstar like Akshay Kumar, it seems it would have been a dead cert for the 100-crore club in theatres. While Indian multiplexes will not screen films committed to OTT on principle, ‘Laxmii’ will reportedly release overseas in some countries where theatres have reopened, such as United Arab Emirates, Australia and New Zealand.

However, as things stand today, ‘Laxmii’, like all OTT releases, will have a digital release in 180 to 200 countries simultaneously, and while an assessing system is still not devised for success, profits will surely come in. And so, to ensure good exposure to all three movies, the three respective platforms have kept the dates slightly different to avoid a clash. The other two films are Anurag Basu’s ‘Ludo’ and Hansal Mehta’s ‘Chhalaang’ — incidentally, this Deepavali is a Rajkummar Rao double-bill, as he features in both these films. They will release on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video on November 12 and November 13, respectively.

While ‘Laxmii’ is the story of a transgender ghost’s vendetta told in a comic vein, ‘Ludo’ and ‘Chhalang’ are both dark comedies of diverse kinds. ‘Ludo’, with an ensemble cast of Abhishek Bachchan, Aditya Roy Kapur and Dangal heroines Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra, tracks four stories that meet at a point, just like Anurag’s ‘Life In A…Metro’ in 2007 that brought together three narratives.

Hansal Mehta, on the other hand, is going strong after his unique web series ‘Scam 1992’, and ‘Chhalaang’ (which means a “jump”), is a triangular love story of two PT teachers in love with a computer teacher. The film is set in a small town and co-produced by Ajay Devgn with Luv Ranjan and T-Series Films, which is also co-producing ‘Ludo’.

In that sense, all three films are dark comedies that the makers hope to offer us a “bright” Deepavali.

Amidst all this ‘dark’ brightness, ‘Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari’ was the fourth film that was also set to come on November 13, featuring Diljit Dosanjh, Manoj Bajpayee and (once again) Fatima Sana Shaikh. Zee Studios, which has produced the film, a romantic comedy, wanted to have a theatrical release — on their terms and conditions. Trade analyst Atul Mohan reveals that things did not work out and now the film will come a week or two later.

Vinod Mirani, veteran trade analyst, rues the fact that the producers are now planning to release the film on Zeeplex, their pay-per-view platform and also discuss their trade dealings in public in the media. He feels that while a section of the viewers might shell out the money, the overall result will be negative, as proved by Zee’s previous film ‘Khaali Peeli’.

“As it is, Rs 299 is expensive for a single film, it does not work in a price-sensitive country like India,” concurs Atul. “After all, the film does not star a big name like Salman Khan or Akshay Kumar. They would have done better to release it on their platform ZEE5.”

Having said that, for the consumer who is king, there are three movies to savour the bright spot in a situation where, sadly enough, movie halls are set for their darkest phase.

And so, Hindi film lovers in almost 200 countries will have a bright Deepavali with a spread of three films from which they can choose one, two or all.