JOIN OUR WHATSAPP CHANNEL
EXCLUSIVE: Shoojit Sircar on releasing Amitabh Bachchan & Ayushmann Khurrana's Gulabo Sitabo on the web
Director Shoojit Sircar announced that Gulabo Sitabo will hit the digital platform on June 12 this year. Here, he discusses the reason to do so and if Udham Singh will also follow suit.
A few days ago, Shoojit Sircar announced that his next directorial project - Gulabo Sitabo - starring Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana will be releasing on the web. The film hits digital platforms on June 12, 2020. While the film was ready for a release in April itself, the Corona outbreak in the country forced the nation to move to a stage of lockdown with the theatres being shut and movie shoots stalled.
Now, with the current scenario, it's unclear when things will get back to normal. In that situation, it was decided by the makers of the Big B-Ayushmann starrer that they will indeed head towards an online release. Shoojit Sircar opened up about making this choice and reveals, "I made Gulabo Sitabo as a cinematic experience. It was the situation that called for a decision like this. So I experimented. I'm happy to do this experiment (of releasing the film online). Both Gulabo Sitabo and Udham Singh are cinematic experiences; nothing is less, nothing is more. It's all about creating good cinema."
But after Gulabo Sitabo, is there a plan to also put out Udham Singh online or will they wait to give it a theatrical release, given its grand canvas? The director reasons, "I have been working on one film at a time. One film recovers a little cost and that helps me move on to the next one. Udham Singh needs post production work which I'll start once I release Gulabo Sitabo. We regenerate employment that way. We still don't know which way we will go with Udham Singh at this point. There's work pending in the post production of the film which we need to complete first."
Check out Gulabo Sitabo's poster below here:
Now, the decision to release the films online sparked a huge debate on social media, with INOX expressing their displeasure and disagreement with the decision. They wrote, "INOX would like to express extreme displeasure and disappointment on an announcement made by a production house today, to release their movie directly on an OTT platform by skipping the theatrical window run. The decision of the production house to deviate from the globally prevalent content windowing practice is alarming and disconcerting," the statement read.
The Producers Guild of India too released a fresh statement as a response to the tweet and asserted, "At a time like this, it is disappointing to see abrasive and unconstructive messaging from some of our colleagues in the exhibition sector. Statements that call for 'retributive measures' against producers who decide to take their movies direct to OTT platforms - especially at a time when cinemas are unfortunately closed for the foreseeable future - do not lend themselves to a constructive or collaborative dialogue on the way forward for the industry." We wonder where this will lead to! Watch this space for more updates.
Latest Articles
