Gone are the days when OTT platforms fell over one another in pursuit of big-budgeted Bollywood big-screen projects. Disney-Hotstar apparently cut a very hard deal with producer Ratan Jain before purchasing his new production a riotous comedy Hungama2 .
An informed source reveals, “They(the Hungama producer Ratan Jain) actually asked for a lot more, considering director Priyadarshan’s first Hungama was a hit. But that was 18 years ago. Today’s generation has moved on. Also, the film has no face value(big stars). Not that stars sell films on the OTT, the content does.”
Lately the OTT platforms have begun to exercise extreme caution about purchasing feature films.
Says the same source, “Disney-Hotstar paid a massive 90 crore rupees for David Dhawan’s Coolie No 1 and it was a disaster. They’ve paid much less for Hungama 2. The star cast has no A-listers. Unless one considers Paresh Rawal and Shilpa Shetty to be stars.”
Apparently A-listers gracing the digital space is no more a reason to rejoice. The digital world has given opportunities for a huge bank of untapped talent to emerge, from Harshvardhan Rane and Pulkit Samrat in Taish to Jaideep Ahlawat and Abhishek Bannerjee in Pataal Lok to Pratik Gandhi in Hansal Mehta’s Scam 1992 to Surya Sharma in Undekhi .
