Sankranti hit soon on small screens

Ram Pothineni, Malvika Sharma and Nivetha Pethuraj-starrer Red, that emerged as a surprise hit this Sankranti season is gearing up for an OTT release in the coming week. The film’s limited and well-planned release ensured the makers a decent profit of close to 5 crores and its theatrical run has more or less ended in most circuits across the world. Red is Ram’s third consecutive success after Hello Guru Prema Kosame and iSmart Shankar.

Now, Red will have a digital release, not in one, but two OTT platforms on the same day, February 23, on Netflix and Sun NXT. Sun Network holds the digital and satellite rights for Red. However, Netflix and Sun NXT have a content-sharing agreement for select Telugu films, as part of which the simultaneous release on two OTT platforms is happening. In the past, films like Bheeshma and Alaa Vaikunthapuramulo debuted on these two platforms at the same time, thereby garnering good viewership.

There has been a lot of debate on the window between theatrical release and OTT platforms across industries and it’s a welcoming sign that most Telugu films are getting their due in the theatres for a good time before OTT release. Red was in fact very close to having a direct OTT release in 2020 and the announcement regarding the reopening of theatres thankfully coincided at a phase where the makers had to take a key decision.