Box office is a menacing beast. A Goliath that every David needs to fight without any certainty of winning over. Let’s tweak that a bit, shall we? The numbers have usually spoken for themselves. About 200 films having theatrical releases, and barely 6 to 8 (being optimistic) garnering the moolah in a calendar year.
These are petrifying odds for any filmmaker who, wanting to tell a story, also needs to deal with the logistics and business aspect of making a movie. Enter OTT revolution. Not only did the advent of OTT manage to accentuate the importance of entertainment but also provided widespread avenues to not just tell your story but also have a financially sound project.
What’s been an added boon is just how an array of films over the years might not have attained the big numbers that it desired to achieve but have reborn on streaming platforms thus solidifying the fact – that good work, more often than not, will be noticed. Decoding how some films have managed to get a new life on OTT while not necessarily being knockouts on box office.
Earliest Examples & Posterity
You can think of plenty of films back in the 90s and 2000s that would breathe new lives in today’s times, especially something like Andaz Apna Apna that continues to be considered a cult but that’s primarily due to its consistent run on satellite, and then now, OTT.
One of the earlier examples that branches between both satellite and OTT has to be the Shah Rukh Khan led, Swades, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. The film was a financial failure which steadily earned more and more eyeballs on your TV screens. However, the demographic that encapsulates today’s viewers have found a newfound love and admiration for the film courtesy its presence on Netflix. Now, the film is ageing like a fine wine and will continue to find more love.
One of the key reasons for films establishing their presence is the fact that they are there for posterity. Appointment viewing takes a backseat, where you aren’t compelled to rush to watch something just because you have a small window of time – time is an illusion (not really) on OTT. You could perhaps be watching something today and stop in between to potentially forget about it for months, only to return to it out of nowhere. That makes any film invincible unless it leaves a particular platform.
The Recent Examples
There is a plethora of films in the more recent past that have found immense love in streamers while being underwhelming in theaters. Imtiaz Ali’s almost entire filmography can vouch for that but the flagbearer of that has been to be Tamasha. A film that continues to unveil layers and layers in viewers’ minds with time passing by; a film like Sonchiriya, which was one of Late Sushant Singh Rajput’s finest and has been appreciated immensely even more after its arrival on Zee5.
Other films like Tumbbad and Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar represent what OTT is capable of with its reach and penetration as not just nationally but internationally, these films have gained prominence in one way or another. Jayeshbhai Jordaar witnessed a dismal box office run but falling prey to the pandemic woes in theaters, it benefitted from the benefit of more viewership during the pandemic on streaming platforms much later. All three streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
And finally, the most recent example being that of Laapataa Ladies, which did reasonably well at the box office but managed to break records and create a storm with its innings on Netflix. Does this justify people’s assumptions that some films are just ‘made for’ or are ‘better suited’ for OTT? Absolutely not.
There might be a certain treatment given to a film while making it which propel it towards an experience seemingly making a bigger impact on streaming platforms but there’s never a blueprint that distinguishes a film being better for OTT or theaters.
Sure, your films with budgets that are a fraction of the mega commercial potboilers might not compel you to rush to a theater (which is incredibly sad and unfortunate) but in the end, it will always be about the story resonating – no matter the medium.