with the ongoing nationwide lockdown bollywood is surrounded by uncertainty losses are shooting up and the trade fears that the upcoming months will see a tough run at the box office over a fortnight ago universal pictures in the us had decided to release one of their fresh movies trolls world tour online and in theatres simultaneously on friday april 10 however the film ended up on home entertainment platforms with no theatrical release the studio has also pushed some of itsintheatre films like the invisible man the hunt and emma on homevideo platforms studios like paramount and disney have also released their films the lovebirds and artemis fowl respectively directly on streaming platforms films that moved to ott after the lockdown halted their theatrical runcloser home irrfanstarrer angrezi medium which released on march 13 registered a short run at the bo amidst the covid19 crisis though producer dinesh vijan had expressed the desire to rerelease the film in theatres post the lockdown in the current scenario it has been released on the ott platform the tamil remake of vicky donor dharala prabhu and telugu thriller madha faced the same problem the question is will this become a trend in india where small and mediumbudget films made for a theatrical release open straight on ott platforms for a premium feetop actors dont want their films to release on ott directly tradetrade analyst komal nahta says we will witness many bo clashes the bigger films will have to wait for the overseas markets to also normalise before starting promotions so while a big film may not readily consider an ott release as an option if things get tougher midranged and smaller films could explore it to recover investments independent distributor and trade analyst amod mehra says it wont be easy because top actors dont want their films to release on ott directlyhindi films that release theatrically can be made available on an ott platform only after sixeight weeks of release according to a contract with exhibitors its six weeks or 90 days in the us market too shibashish sarkar group ceo content digital gaming at reliance entertainment which is backing kabir khans 83 which was to release in theatres on april 10 adds we will end up with a clogged release window when things open up i wont be surprised if some mid and smallbudget films go straight for digital release not every producer has the capacity to hold on to a film for very long also if some important films move to ott directly it might lead to a new consumption pattern box view pointi am sure some people are discussing ott as an option but the math needs to be worked out every film has its set revenue components and going straight to ott cuts out twothree of them would the ott platforms make up for that ronnie lahiri coproducer gulabo sitabo postponed was slated to release on april 17i had an offer to release my film ginny