Randeep Hooda doesn’t feel OTT is a threat to the big screen in any way
I don’t think the cinema watching experience, in a large darkened hall with other people, which is infectious, can be replaced. RANDEEP HOODA,
The pandemic might have disrupted the cinema-going experience, changing the way content is consumed, but Randeep Hooda insists that nothing can replace the big screen. Just when everything was getting back on track, things have become bleak once again with the second wave.
Hooda’s next, Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai, which was earlier slated to open on the big screen, has opted for a multiplatform model and will now simultaneously release on a web platform, too. Changing the route might be the need of the hour, but for the actor, it doesn’t mean OTT is a threat to the big screen. “I don’t think the cinema watching experience, in a large darkened hall with other people, which is infectious, can be replaced,” he says, adding, “But OTT platforms have recently defined its audience.”
Hooda points out that the web is also giving new lease of life to some old projects. The 44-year-old reveals, “A lot of my films which suffered because of marketing or release (plan), have now found their audience on OTT.”
The actor, who is exploring the OTT space in India as well as internationally, says the pandemic has definitely boosted its popularity.
“All these months when people were in lockdown, they explored a variety of different themes and different executions,” he opines. Fortunately, Hooda does not fear change. “I adapt to the changing world as best as I can,” says the actor, who made his international web debut last year with Chris Hemsworth-starrer Extraction, and will soon be seen in web series, Inspector Avinash.
At the moment, he feels more adaptable than before. “There’s nothing I want to avoid. I’m playing a full-fledged villain in Radhe. That has been a welcome change. I’m hoping there will be more things that knock on my door,” he says.