From Kajol's Salaam Venky to Sanjay Mishra's Vadh to Tusshar Kapoor's Maarrich, films that should have gone to OTT

With the pandemic and the ensuing recession the film industry seems to have not learnt its lessons. I remember speaking to Abhishek Bachchan during the release of _Dasvi_ on OTT. He pointed out that the lockdown reduced all the unnecessary travelling to promote a film.

“It can all be done from home. No need to waste money travelling from city to city,” Abhishek said.

Bollywood never learns from its mistakes. Even after the pandemic Vijay Deverakonda travelled from Hyderabad to Patna promoting Liger. We all know what happened to it. Now we have Kajol the ‘shero’ of _Salaam Venky_ promoting the film with an intensity I haven’t seen in her before.

But is it of any use? Salaam Venky has generated almost zero interest in the potential moviegoing public. They are all sure it’s an OTT film. Likewise Ananth Mahadevan’s Jackie Shroff father-daughter story Life Is Good.

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Why are such intimate family films being given ‘token’ theatre releases, knowing there is no audience for it on the big screen?

This week it is the battle of the sheroes, with Kajol and Taapsee Pannu displaying their herogiri in Salaam Venky and _Blurr_, respectively. Taapsee turns producer with Blurr, streaming on Zee5, a suspense thriller about twin sisters adapted from director Guillem Morales’ Spanish film Julia’s Eyes, a taut and clenched 2010 suspense thriller .

This is the first double role for Taapsee. But not her first Spanish remake. Taapsee played the lead in Sujoy Ghosh’s Badla, a remake of the Spanish film The Invisible Guest directed by Oriol Paulo, who has a Blurr connection. He wrote the original Spanish film Julia’s Eyes on which Taapsee’s Blurr is based.

Salaam Venky is Revathi’s second full-length feature directorial since Phir Milenge in 2004 . It is the kind of emotionally lush film that deserves a large audience. But it’s being released at the wrong venue. Ditto Vadh, a moving two-handler with Neena Gupta and Sanjay Mishra propelling the plot into somersaults of eloquence. Written and directed by Rajeev Barnwal and Jaspal Singh Sandhu, this too should have gone straight to the digital platform.

As for Maarrich, I can understand Tusshar Kapoor’s need to generate opportunities for himself. But I do hope Naseeruddin Shah’s stature as an actor is not compromised. Again the reason for this small-budget film directed by Dhruv Lather, dodging its digital destiny, is a mystery.

So what are we looking at? Organized hara-kiri? Why is the film industry insisting on shooting itself in the foot by releasing digital-friendly content in the theatres?

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

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