Alia Bhatt’s ‘Darlings’ to stream directly on Netflix

Actor Alia Bhatt’s debut production Darlings, which she also plays the lead in, will stream directly on Netflix, the platform has said. The film co-starring Shefali Shah, Vijay Varma and Roshan Matthew has been co-produced by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. Bhatt launched her production house Eternal Sunshine Productions last year.

“At Netflix, we want to entertain our members with best in class films, across genres, made possible by collaborating with filmmakers who take big creative swings to tell diverse and compelling stories. With Darlings, we continue our long standing partnership with Red Chillies Entertainment and are excited to be the home for Alia Bhatt’s first production,” Pratiksha Rao, director, films and licensing, Netflix India said in a statement.

 To be sure, with lower traction and growth of OTT (over-the-top) streaming platforms during the second covid wave, unlike the lockdown in 2020, Bollywood has slowed down its direct-to-digital film premieres. 

While top studios have waited for cinemas to reopen and are now locking dates for theatrical release, many producers and actors admit to not seeing the kind of traction they expected for their movies on streaming platforms and that the space, for all its exponential growth, still caters to niche audiences.

OTT platforms, on the other hand, also rationalised their budgets for film acquisition where they can negotiate prices on the film’s performance at the box office first. Films released in theatres also come with censor board approvals.

As compared to 60-70% growth in subscriber addition witnessed during the peak of the pandemic last year, figures for monthly subscriber increase have stabilized to 15-20%, according to media analysts. Further, the aggressive push to acquire films in 2020 had stemmed from the desperation of streaming platforms as their content pipeline got affected due to the ban on shooting.