Hotstar-Disney rents Ramoji Film City for 3 years; is it a threat to movie theaters?

Many OTT platforms reportedly saw a spike in content consumption during lockdown. As people were vised to stay indoors to curb spre of COVID 19, y resorted to OTT platforms for entertainment. Considering this, Hotstar Disney has rented Ramoji Film City for 3 years.

Hotstar-Disney rent Ramoji Film City for 3 years

Ramoji Film City is said to be world’s largest film city. Hotstar Disney organisation renting Ramoji means that it can put an ufficial embargo on any or film unit desirous of shooting at vast premise. By reserving India’s biggest film city, Hotstar-Disney intends to ensure that y have an vantous venue to produce content for consumption in coming years.

Disney label h acquired Star and Hotstar in year 2019. merger has me Hotstar as one of most powerful OTT creators across Indian subcontinent. However, renting Ramoji Film City has posed several business threats to movie atres.

This is reportedly so because if people get substantial content on OTT platforms and in comforts of ir home, people might refrain from watching movies in atres. This will furr mean that filmmakers will start producing movies for OTT platforms, where ir films are likely to get more views inste of movie atres.

During pandemic lockdown, Bollywood industry saw many big banner films getting released on OTT platforms directly. While Ayushmann Khurrana starrer Gulabo Sitabo released recently, Akshay Kumar’s Laxxmi Bomb, Vidya Balan’s Shakuntala Devi, and Janhvi Kapoor’s Gunjan Saxena will release on OTT soon.

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How long can OTT continue to release fresh content?

When a filmmaker creates content for an OTT platform, y are aware that it has to be valid for pan-India and across globe as well. Whenever a regional film is me, it caters only to audience of that region. But for an OTT, content has to be relevant for people across India and furr, across globe.

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OTT vs atre

OTT platforms are a good option for low budget films as it ensures sure-shot profit for production house, though it might t be a suitable option for big-budget films. Reportedly, rights for Gulabo Sitabo were acquired by Prime for INR 60-65 crores, which gave producers a profit of Rs 30 crores as movie was me in a budget of Rs 30 crores. If this movie would have released in atres, producers would have h to share profits with exhibitors.

However, same cant happen in a big-budget film. For example, Rajinikanth starrer, 2.0 released in 2018 and h a budget of INR 570 crores. movie earned Rs 800 Crores at box office. Apparently, OTT platform would pay so much for a single film, even if it stars biggest film stars. 

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