Aftab Shivdasani: OTT platforms will eat into the business of cinemas even now

The cinemas has reopened once again, and films are queueing up for release, but actor Aftab Shivdasani feels that the web still have the edge over theatres. The actor says that it is all because the audience is still very much used to watching content at home.

“Cinemas are slowly starting. They have been ruling the entertainment field for years. You cannot write it off. They give you an experience that OTTs cannot give you. Having said that I think that OTTs will eat into a little bit of business of cinemas. People are now so used to watching content at home,” he explains.

Citing the example of Akshay Kumar-starrer Sooryavanshi, which released recently in cinemas, Shivdasani says that only the big ticket films will draw audiences to cinemas.

“It may take a little bit of time but it will happen soon,” the 43-year-old tells us, adding, “I feel that the medium and smaller budgets films will suffer for some time, if not for a long time because people might not got for them in the cinemas.”

He further adds that people have got used to watching such films on OTT and that habit till take time to shift back to cinemas. “They have been watching those films for year and half at home. They will be okay to wait for those films to the OTT after a couple of weeks or a month. That might affect the box office business,” he points out.

As for him, the actor has been dabbling sufficiently with the OTT medium, having been part of Poison 2 and Special Ops 1.5, and he wants to continue having a mixed bag.

“I think that’s the way forward not just for me but for all actors. Not all films will be released in cinemas and now actors are doing both. We do realize that there has to be a mix of both these mediums,” he ends.