When it rains, it pours. This could well be true for Rajkummar Rao who has as many as three films lined up for an OTT release in quick succession. These are Ludo, Chhalaang and The White Tiger.
The best part about this is that each of these three films belongs to an altogether different genre. While Ludo is an action comedy thriller, Chhalaang is a romcom with a sports angle to it. On the other hand The White Tiger is a dramatic affair.
It would be pretty much a double bill for Rajkummar Rao in the Diwali week as Ludo and Chhalaang would be practically arriving back to back. Anurag Basu’s ensemble affair Ludo is set for 12th November release and one waits to see how the actor tags along with Abhishek Bachchan and Aditya Roy Kapur with Fatima Sana Shiekh as his leading lady. On the other hand he would have Nushrat Bharucha for company in Chhalaang which is directed by Hansal Mehta of Scam 1992 fame. Of course both these offerings are chalk-n-cheese affairs for the audiences.
Rajkummar Rao is set to find audiences internationally though with The White Tiger which is based on the acclaimed book by the same name. Priyanka Chopra has released the promo of the film very recently and by the look of things, this one should turn out to be a hard hitting affair. Showing the class divide between rich and poor, this one has Rajkummar Rao playing an affluent businessman and hence would be seen in a never-seen-before avtar. For an actor who is known more for the kind of character he plays in Chhalaang, this would be a shift.
Originally, both Ludo and Chhalaang had plans to arrive in theaters, before Covid took over. As a matter of fact the First Look poster of Chhalaang was released earlier this year itself and even its standies were seen in theaters. However, back then it was pushed ahead for different reasons and now it would be arriving straight on Amazon Prime. On the other hand Abhishek Bachchan, who has already debuted on OTT with Breathe 2, and would now be arriving straight-to-OTT with The Big Bull on Disney + Hotstar, Ludo would be his first stint with Netflix.
Coming back to Rajkummar Rao, his The White Tiger would be enjoying arrival on different platforms as first it would hit select theaters globally in December, only to see a full-fledged digital arrival at Netflix in January.
This could well be the last burst of straight-to-OTT releases for actors in 2020 as it is expected that things would get back to normalcy by early next year, and hence the 100 years old tradition of movies arriving first in theaters would be back in action.
Rajkummar Rao’s releases on OTT
Ludo – 12th November – Netflix
Chhalaang – 13th November – Amazon Prime
The White Tiger – January 2021 – Netflix