“Less pressure to meet the opening day figure,” Abhishek Bachchan on films releasing on streaming platforms

By: Mohnish Singh

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has broken the backbone of almost all industries across the globe, but the one business which has grown by leaps and bounds even in these trying times is the digital medium.

While staying home and following all rules and regulations of lockdown, most of us turned to one streaming media platform or the other to stave off boredom. Digital platforms also came in handy for all those filmmakers whose films were ready for a theatrical release but just could not find a way into cinemas because of the lockdown.

To save themselves from further financial burden, many filmmakers turned to such platforms to release their films. While several people from within the industry are not very much in favour of leaning too much towards such platforms, others are quite thrilled about the new trend that has been gaining prominence in the industry for over a year now. Actor Abhishek Bachchan is one of them.

Talking to an Indian publication, Bachchan said, “Earlier, traditionally, the film’s trailer would come out six to eight weeks before its release. Now, it is a shorter window. By the time the film comes out, as an actor, the excitement goes out of the window because of all the nervousness around initial reactions to the film. Although I have to admit that on a scale of one to hundred, if theatrical was a 100, with films coming out on streaming platforms directly, nervousness level is at 98.”

Bachchan, who made his digital debut with Amazon Prime Video’s streaming show Breathe: Into The Shadows (2020) and then had the digital premiere of his films Ludo (2020) and The Big Bull (2021) on Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar respectively, added that there is no pressure of box-office figures with films releasing on digital platforms. “But in case of the web, they do not release this kind of info. So, it is a sustained release. There is no pressure to watch it first-day first show, it is going to be available. That is the only thing slightly lesser — the pressure to meet the opening day figure. The rest of it is pretty much still the same,” he signed off.