The bigger films will always find bigger muscle to get screens
have done for Bhediya too.
“On the way, we were doing our mandatory Covid test. It keeps your mind away from the scare of Covid-19. I feel the enthusiasm is still the same, it has not slowed down the process,” says the actor.
Shooting with Kumar, she continues, is a ‘lot of fun’. “We were there in Jaisalmer for 45 days, and shot at the same palace as Housefull 4. Whenever we shoot with him, it’s always a lot of fun on and off set, everyone eats together. How all these days passed, we didn’t realise, it was just so much fun. The place itself is so beautiful. And in between all this and playing games, we made a film! Having said that, I am also very excited about my role and character,” she says.
Lootcase was never intended to be released on OTT. We had a mixed bag of emotions when it came to the release,” says actor Kunal Kemmu, talking about the sleeper hit of 2020, which was also declared one of most liked direct-to-ott films, in a recent survey.
Talking about his film’s success, he is glad for all the love that the film got. He says, “The film has repeat value. Sure, we were hoping it would be a theatrical release as a comedy of this scale, there is another level of energy and fun while watching in theatres with others. For us, the unit of the film, the idea of watching the audiences reactions live is another high. Unfortunately, we were robbed of that for multiple reasons; most important of all was due to the pandemic,” he says, adding that the love the film got is its biggest takeaway.
With theatres opening up and a number of big-budget films announcing their release date for the year, there are hardly any Fridays left for small budget movies. Going forward, will this lead to smaller films sticking to OTT only? Kemmu replies, “We have gone through such unprecedented times that to predict the future is a farfetched idea. Even when theatres were open, there was always a fight for smaller films to get enough screens, the proper windows and showtimes. Somewhere, OTT has been a saviour for so many films and shows which are content-driven and not stardriven.”
He adds, “Moreover, it’s one thing to think theatres are open and films are releasing but the other thing is, how comfortable will people be to go to theatres right now. There is still a lot of risk as everyone hasn’t got the vaccine. Even in the future, when people will watch movies in theatres regularly, the bigger films will always find bigger muscle to get screens. We will have to wait and gauge the appetite of audiences to watch films on the big screen and on OTT; and if there will be kinds of films which will only release in theatres. Maybe you would want to enjoy a spectacle film like Avengers or a Rohit Shetty film in the theatres while if it’s a human drama or story about relationships, maybe people might enjoy it on OTT.”