Ram Gopal Varma launches his own streaming platform named Spark

By: Mohnish Singh

Renowned filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, who boasts of several notable films on his resume including Rangeela (1995), Satya (1998), and Company (2001), has launched his own streaming media platform called Spark.

The streaming media platform went live on May 15 with the premiere of Varma’s latest film D Company (2021), starring Ashwat Kanth, Pranay Dixit, and Naina Ganguly in significant characters. The film focuses on how a street gang in Mumbai, headed by Dawood Ibrahim, went on to establish itself as one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the world.

Written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma, D Company has been produced by Sagar Manchanuru under the banner of Spark Productions. The film was initially poised for its theatrical release in March. However, the sudden spike in coronavirus cases led several states across the country to impose lockdown-like restrictions to curb the virus, which forced theatres to remain shut.

In one of his recent interviews, Varma had said that about 80-90% of films will head straight to streaming media platforms in the future. “I say this for 2-3 reasons. One is you going to the theatre vs the theatre coming to you and second is the convenience you have to watch it anytime you want and we normally take away three hours of our life to go and plan to see a film. If in the first 10 minutes you are bored and you are already booked because you already made that time and you keep cursing the film. On OTT, you can just skip it or watch some other film. So, I think the advantages of OTT far outweigh in terms of convenience for the viewer and for the producer, it cuts down on the release cost, the publicity cost. That extra expenditure over and above the content making, I think will be a huge relief for the producers. I think less than 20 per cent will be released in theatres,” he reasoned.

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