8AM Metro OTT Release EXCLUSIVE! Gulshan Devaiah On Film's Success On OTT After Average Box Office Show

8AM Metro OTT Release date, platform: It's always a pleasure to talk to Gulshan Devaivah. I won't lie that the man has all my heart ever since I saw his amazing work in films like Hunterr, A Death In The Gunj and Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota. As his movie 8AM Metro premiered on ZEE5, Filmibeat interacted with him on varied subjects.

Movies which may not do well in theatres perform well on OTT. Why do you think that is? And what do you think didn't work in 8 A.M. Metro's favor in theatre but will work on OTT?

First of all, I don't really think that films that don't do well in theaters will perform well in OTT. I don't believe in that at all. The movie business, the theatrical release business, is a cutthroat business. It's really difficult to get people to leave their homes and travel to a movie theater to watch a film, it was always difficult. Not only now even before people didn't, but it's also more difficult nowadays because people have more options to be entertained. They have television, they have streaming networks, phones, Instagram, YouTube, they have all these things and cinema has to compete with that. 8 A.M. Metro was an independent film with a small budget and a negligible publicity budget, it's difficult to even get eyeballs when you don't have the money to do so. But we got a really positive word of mouth because whoever watched the film said really wonderful things about it. It wasn't even reviewed by many of the reputed reviewers because they just didn't know about it, but whoever did review it had only positive things to say. It's so difficult to get bums on seats as they say. But online is a different case because it has more time to build a reputation. It's not Friday to Friday, nobody cares about how many people watched it on Friday, what was the box office collection and things like that. It's a different business model, so it's a little more forgiving for films. And that's perhaps the only reason why 8 A.M. Metro struggled to make any sort of noise when it had a theatrical release but is sort of gathering momentum on OTT."

This film was shot in Hyderabad so your experience shooting in Hyderabad.
I had a wonderful time shooting in Hyderabad, it's a great place. I'm a foodie, so I called up a friend Rocky Singh, who does Food Shows and found out places. He would tell me where to go and I really had a great time. It was my first time filming with the southern crew, so it was really nice. I don't really speak Telugu, but I did speak whatever little broken Telugu that I could, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a rainy weather, and it was nice. I had lovely co-star also- Sayami, who had worked in Hyderabad, so she knew a few things, where to go and eat etc. The whole experience and people were really nice."