Radhe starts a New Era of Movie Viewing

When a Salman Khan film releases and that also in the EID festive time, the anticipation is on the sky-high level. From the pre-release hype to advance booking report to daily box office collection. Be it the exhibitors, or distributors or the trade, or fans, all are busy with their own estimates and calculations. But the post-covid scenario has turned everything 360 degrees. 

There is Radhe all set to release now, but there is no discussion on the box office and honestly, enthusiasm is much less this time because of that. This is the new normal. Yes, Radhe is getting a hybrid release but in reality, the film will only release in theaters (limited places) overseas and on the extremely low count in stand-alone single-screen theaters in India.

No big multiplex chain such as PVR, Inox, Carnival, or any other is releasing Radhe. Of course, the main reason for that is almost all the theaters are shut down in India because of the ongoing coronavirus second wave. 

Had Radhe been a pre-covid release we would have been asking the question of whether the film will get an opening of 40 crores or 50 crores or more. But even a 1 crore lifetime business looks tough now. Yes, in the future when cinema halls will open then Radhe might be showcased in theaters but by then the film will be easily accessible on digital and satellite platforms.

Makers of Radhe has made a decent table profit by signing a good deal with Zee. It is now up to Zee and will be interesting to see whether they can recover their investment or not. If Zee manages to recover their investment with Radhe and make some decent profit then we might see more big films going Radhe way. We are going to discuss the business model of Radhe in a separate post.

Another interesting point is that so far the majority of the films which are released digitally are accessible if one has a subscription to that particular OTT platform. But in the case of Radhe, it is not like that. Radhe is releasing on pay per view model and we will get to know soon whether pay per view model has any future in India or not. Piracy is already a big deciding factor for the films that are releasing in theaters and here one will have the high-quality print of Radhe available in just a few hours time from the release. Hence, pay per view is a big question mark at this moment. We will get some answers on that in a few days' time.

Lastly, how we will know whether Radhe is a success or a flop? Earlier, the box office was a big parameter for any film that releases in theaters. But now how? Zee may make public of viewership details of Radhe. But again, what is the credibility of that? Secondly, why Zee will make public the viewership report? Yes, we will have the Satellite viewership details as there is Barc for that. Again, only by knowing the Satellite viewership, can we guess, whether a film is a Hit or Flop?

This is a new normal for a trade portal like us also. We are also going to learn few things. Hopefully, we will get some answers after the release of Radhe. Finally exciting times ahead.