With the theatres still being shut due to the pandemic and the lockdown, the OTT space is currently booming with content! Recently, it was announced that 7 Big Bollywood films will get a direct digital release on the Disney+Hotstar platform.
Ajay Devgn-starrer ‘Bhuj: The Pride of India’ is one of the films in the line-up which also includes late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s ‘Dil Bechara’, Akshay Kumar’s ‘Laxmmi Bomb’, Alia Bhatt’s ‘Sadak 2’, Abhishek Bachchan’s ‘The Big Bull’, Kunal Khemmu’s ‘Lootcase’ and Vidyut Jammwal’s ‘Khuda Haafiz’.
Earlier it was revealed that Laxmmi Bomb was the highest-earning film to release digitally since it was sold to Disney+Hotstar for a record-breaking amount of 125 crores! Now an anonymous has source has revealed to Pinkvilla that Ajay Devgn’s Bhuj: The Pride of India is second in the order; being reportedly sold to Disney+Hotstar for a whopping amount of 112 crores!
A source said, “Ajay along with producers Bhushan Kumar, Vajir Singh and others cracked a solid deal with Hotstar for Bhuj. The film has been sold online for a whopping Rs 112 crore. That also makes it the second highest-earning film to release on OTT platforms this year so far.”
A trade analyst commented that the makers had cracked a good deal given the situation – “If the film had a theatrical release, it had prospects to earn a little more for the producers for sure, but given the situation, this is a great deal they have inked. They would have got much lesser for their digital rights if it had released in the theatres.”
Apart from selling digital rights for Rs 112 crores for the standalone OTT premiere, the makers can also capitalize on other avenues like the music or the satellite rights.
About Bhuj: The Pride of India
Starring Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, and Sonakshi Sinha, Bhuj: The Pride of India is an upcoming war action film. Set during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, this ensemble drama is about the Indian Air Force (IAF) squadron leader Vijay Karnik, who reconstructed the IAF airbase in Bhuj with the help of 300 local women.