War heats up between Producers and Exhibitors as Films are directly going Digital on the OTT Platform

Displeasure and disappointment of the exhibition sector are out in open as few producers are planning to release their respective films directly on the OTT platform. As official news broke out yesterday that Gulabo Sitabo releasing on Amazon Prime Video directly, it has not gone down well with the exhibitor sector.

Inox has released an official statement on this development. They have mentioned their extremely displeasure on this development and have stated that proper retributive measures will be taken against the production house of Gulabo Sitabo.

Inox Statement -

STATEMENT BY INOX ON A PRODUCTION HOUSE’S ANNOUNCEMENT TO RELEASE THEIR MOVIE ON AN OTT PLATFORM BY SKIPPING THE THEATRICAL RUN pic.twitter.com/NfqoYV2QRx

— INOX Leisure Ltd. (@INOXMovies) May 14, 2020

Countering the Inox statement, Producers Guild of India has also released a statement showing their anger against Inox.

Producers Guild of India statement -

Film director Kunal Kohli has also tweeted his displeasure on Inox. However, his tweet looks simply amateurish. He has targeted Inox by asking for revenue sharing of F&B along with ticket sales. That looks childish, as do makers share their revenue generated from Satellite, Digital, and Music rights with theaters? All follow certain business models.

Tweet of Kunal Kohli -

Let inox release what % of their revenue is ticket sales vs F&B.F&B is based on ticket sales, no one goes to a theatre to eat,Right? Start sharing that revenue with producers as well, before accusing them for trying to survive in a world pandemic never witnessed before by mankind

— kunal kohli (@kunalkohli) May 14, 2020

All in all, the films all set to directly release on the OTT platform has not gone well with the exhibition sector. Yes, it is true that few producers are in dire need of financial support at this moment and they have no option except directly releasing their films on the OTT platform. But it is also true that few makers could have waited for a few more weeks before going digital. Not all are facing financial issues. It is that they are getting lucrative offers from OTT platforms and they want to make hay while the sun shines.