After Sivakarthikeyan's Doctor goes to OTT, his fans demand #DoctorOnlyInTheatres

Barely a week after the Tamil biggie Jagame Thandhiram, starring Dhanush, Aishwarya Lekshmi, released directly on Netflix, another high-profile film in the industry, Doctor, is taking the OTT route. Doctor, directed by Kolamaavu Kokila fame-filmmaker Nelson Dhilipkumar, is an action-comedy that stars Sivakarthikeyan in the lead, who is paired alongside Priyanka Mohan (who has acted in Telugu films Gangleader and Sreekaram in the past). The film will release across all South Indian languages - Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam - on Disney+ Hotstar, reported LetsOTT earlier in the day.

The film was scheduled to release in theatres this March but was postponed due to the TN Assembly elections. The rumours of Doctor heading towards an OTT released surfaced in May itself when several members of the cast, crew and the production house KJR Studios (co-producer) unfollowed each other on social media. The production house opted not to announce any update given the disastrous second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, fans of the lead actor hoped that a theatrical release was still a possibility. However, the pandemic hasn't given much of a choice for the makers.

In response to the direct-to-OTT announcement, a few fans of Sivakarthikeyan erupted in joy but majority were disappointed, so much that they vented their frustration by trending the hashtag #DoctorOnlyInTheatres on Twitter. It's important to note that the production house, KJR Studios, also opted to release their earlier film, Ka Pae Ranasingam featuring Vijay Sethupathi and Aishwarya Rajesh, directly on ZEE5. Meanwhile, Sivakarthikeyan's next film is Don, where he reunites with his Doctor co-star Priyanka Mohan.