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John Abraham Gets Brutally Honest; Says Almost 90% Of Films That Opted For OTT Release Were Bad
When the theatre business came to a standstill owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, many filmmakers turned their attention towards OTT platforms to release their movies. Many big ticket films like Akshay Kumar's Laxmmi, Sanjay Dutt-Alia Bhatt's Sadak 2, Varun Dhawan-Sara Ali Khan's Coolie No.1 premiered directly on OTT platforms last year.
John Abraham-Emraan Hashmi's upcoming gangster drama Mumbai Saga, was also supposed to have a direct-to-web release. However, when John heard about there being a conversation regarding releasing Mumbai Saga on Amazon Prime, he had a chat with Bhushan Kumar and director Sanjay Gupta, as he believed that releasing this film in cinema halls was the right move.
In a tete-a-tete with Mid-day, the Batla House actor explained the reason behind the same and said, "(The film) won't make as much money as movies did in 2019. All theatres across the country haven't opened, but with this film, a few more will. After we announced this film, five more movies were announced (or theatrical run)."
Further, John went on to say that he believes that filmmakers who aren't confident about their films are usually the ones who 'dump' the films on OTT platforms. The actor said that he wasn't ready to release Mumbai Saga on web despite the COVID-19 scare.
"Let's be honest, it's a common industry notion that if an actor is not confident of a film, he dumps it on OTT. Almost 90 per cent of movies that opted for OTT release were bad. I am not saying this film is spectacular, but we are not worried about its failure. I won't use the pandemic as a crutch," Mid-day quoted John as saying.
In the same interview, John also opened up about why he gave his nod to Mumbai Saga and said, "I ran the risk of repeating my Shootout at Wadala act. I am wearing a tika again. But the conflict with Emraan's character was interesting. Preparing for this role required following Gupta's vision and reading up on the backstory of the man."
Set in the 1980s-90s, Mumbai Saga helmed by Sanjay Gupta, tells the story of Bombay's transformation into Mumbai. It stars Emraan Hashmi as a cop who is on a mission to end the crime in the city while John Abraham plays a gangster. Also starring Kajal Aggarwal, the film is slated to hit the big screens on March 19, 2021.
