This is it. The makers of Sooryavanshi have had enough. They have reached a conclusion where a decision would be taken sooner than expected. If the stand-off between the producers and the exhibitors is not resolved in 5 days from now, they would go ahead with straight to OTT release. In fact if push to comes, the decision may come in sooner than later, which could be as good as Sunday itself.
Akshay Kumar, Rohit Shetty, Reliance and Dharma waited patiently for a year to get their only at theatres. Even when there were so many films opting for the OTT release and there was temptation for Sooryavanshi as well with big money offered, they didn’t budge and waited for theatres to reopen. Now that the government has allowed 100% occupancy, the decks were cleared for the big budget action drama to finally make it to theatres. In fact unofficially, the news was out that it would be Good Friday release for the film.
However, the settlement around revenue sharing between producers and exhibitors has not yet been reached, even though 10 days have gone by ever since government relaxed the occupancy rule. There is too much of back and forth happening, something which has led to the situation where a call needs to be taken either ways.
After all, now there is no good reason for a biggie to not make it to theatres in India (even though overseas situation is still bad with US and UK not conducive for a film to be screened). For the makers of Sooryavanshi, it is a bitter pill they are willing to swallow as there would be far lesser revenue from the overseas than what it would have been had the film seen a release in the regular times. Still, they chose to stay away from the OTT temptation and sided with the exhibitors to arrive in theatres first.
However, with the current stalemate condition, they have are now in enhanced talks with a major OTT platform which has offered them a deal that allows good table profit right away. Of course, both Akshay Kumar and Rohit Shetty believe that the film has been made for the big screen, and hence audiences would have maximum fun with huge crowds cheering for it. After all, the film also boasts of the presence of Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh with Katrina Kaif as the leading lady. Still, with the current situation, they are finally saying ‘enough is enough.’
It is now a matter of just a few days, which would soon convert into few hours, before the decision is announced. Either ways, Sooryavanshi is arriving for the audiences around Holi or Good Friday. Now whether it would be in theatres or straight-to-OTT would be known soon enough.