Yuvarathnaa goes the OTT way as theatre occupancy restricted to 50%

Film exhibitors expressed dismay and anger following the announcement that the Puneeth Rajkumar starrer Yuvarathnaa will begin streaming on Over The Top (OTT) platform Amazon Prime from Friday, simply eight days after its launch.

They are reeling below losses due to the lack of enterprise final 12 months and restrictions on theatre occupancy that got here into impact on Wednesday. They have been banking on Yuvarathnaa to tide them over this powerful interval. They are upset that such a giant movie will stream on OTT so early, primarily undercutting their enterprise additional. The movie will proceed to run in theatres as nicely, the movie’s producer Hombale Films, introduced on Twitter.

“The producers may make a quick buck, but the larger industry will suffer,” stated K.V. Chandrashekhar, president, Karnataka Film Exhibitors’ Association.

The State authorities had imposed a restriction of fifty% occupancy in theatres on April 2, a day after Yuvarathnaa was launched. Puneeth Rajkumar lobbied arduous with the authorities for rest of the rule. Minutes after he met Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, the rule was deferred until April 7, giving the movie a breather to rake in the essential first week assortment.

First week field workplace collections are a key issue to resolve the worth at which OTT platforms purchase a movie, and the one-week run helped the movie garner a very good worth, business sources stated. “The platform is believed to have paid a certain amount but the makers will also get a share of the revenue based on a pay-per-view model. Given the long festival weekend, it will likely break even,” the supply stated.

An exhibitor stated, “When the government imposed restrictions on occupancy, the most affected was Yuvarathnaa. The entire industry rallied around the film unit and lobbied hard. But eventually, the influential producer-lead actor duo struck a good deal only for themselves.”

Hombale Films, in its assertion, stated: “Given the present pandemic situation, this decision has been taken keeping in mind larger reach of good content to more audiences, especially families and the elderly.”

D.R. Jairaj, president, Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, stated they might not intervene as they got here to find out about it solely after the movie was bought to the OTT platform. “This doesn’t augur well for the industry. We are holding a meeting with all senior producers and exhibitors on Friday to discuss the issue,” he stated.

Incidentally, Puneeth Rajkumar had bought two of his house productions, Law and French Biriyani, completely to an OTT platform with out a theatrical launch in 2020, drawing the ire of the business.