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Mirroring The Industry: Producers fleecing OTT platforms, release incomplete films to cash in on post theatrical deals
Two of the recent releases got a sub-par release with little marketing – reason? Well, the assets were not ready with VFX. Read details
The rise of digital platforms has pushed a lot of producers to opt for the risk-free model of filmmaking. The same has resulted in them making projects in the name of cinema just to insure their risk and make easy profits by pre-selling all the rights. It’s often said that humans give their best when there is something at stake, but when there is a sure-shot return on investment, why would one make efforts to work on a script and actually make an attempt to deliver a good film for the audience?
Are Hindi Films Announced Theatrically To Keep OTT Platforms Happy?
Well, that’s completely another story of discussion that we have written in the past of how the risk-averse model of business has put creativity on the back burner (YOU CAN READ HERE). But this piece is coming out of sheer anger around certain practices of filmmaking in the industry. The last few months have seen the theatrical release of at least 3 incomplete films (one to be released soon). Yes, you read that right and the decisions have been taken by producers to meet the deadline for OTT premieres.
The contracts on the OTT front are signed with a deadline i.e. the OTT premiere date with all the contingencies is decided much in advance and the contract lapses if the timelines are not met. Once the contract tenure is over, the film is out in the market for sale again and this time around, the values will be much lower than the pre-decided one as inside reports (not so good for most) are out in the open. To avoid contracts getting lapsed, producers in today’s time and age are willing to cheat the audiences with an incomplete film and insure their risk with OTT revenue. Two of the recent releases got a sub-par release with little marketing – the reason? Well, the assets were not ready with VFX.
Apparently, the VFX team of both films wanted at least 2 more months to deliver the final product and the producers were not willing to wait, as a 2-month delay would mean the OTT contract would fall through. So, what happened next? Both the films released were far off from completion on the post-production front. The audiences were cheated as their theatrical experience was put at stake just because the producer didn’t want to lose out on his pre-decided OTT revenue.
Short Terms Gains at the Cost Of Long Term Consistency
Coming to another soon-to-be-released film, the deadline for the OTT premiere is the last week of December and the project is far off from completion. Apparently, some shoot remains, and yet the makers are doing a formality release in theatres to meet up with the OTT premiere timeline. It will be an incomplete release devoid of some key scenes not just in theatres but also digital world. In this film, the studio is no longer willing to invest more, as the film has gone over budget due to some complexes with finances created by his fellow co-producer. Now, the co-producer and studio, who want to insure his risk from OTT, are going ahead by releasing an incomplete film. While such practices are surely giving short-term benefits to the filmmakers with table profits, this isn’t something sustainable in the long run. In fact, such practices would hamper the trust of international overseas digital players in Indian producers and in turn, also impact the market value of digital rights for future releases.
Back in the pandemic times, the Hindi Film Fraternity took undue advantage by selling off all the bad projects to OTT players for a giant sum. Eventually, the platforms decoded the model and put a full stop to all the buying as 95 percent of acquisitions were loss-making for them. While we have pointed out these 3 films, there are many more in the pipeline, which will be a formality release for the sake of OTT revenues and it’s a matter of time before both audience and digital players take note of this. And once the course correction happens, the biggest casualty in the same would be the small and mid-sized feature films
A Course Correction on Cards?
Thankfully, course correction always happens and things level up to normalcy. Back in the day, some producers were overpaying talents to literally “BUY OUT” their shooting dates, and that’s a practice that is coming to an end. No one barring the said set of producers pays the premium prices to the actors, especially younger ones, and hence, they are compelled to come to the actual price and not the one-off hiked pricing scenario. The ones at the top are now opting for the profit-sharing model, and the welcome change is encouraging actors to put films over their personal interests. Hopefully, a change on cards on the digital front too - with regards to risk taking ability and release commitments.
Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates.
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