PremiumBholaa Shankar on OTT: Legal troubles haunt the digital release of Chiranjeevi, Keerthy Suresh’s film
Meher Ramesh has directed the Telugu remake of Ajith’s 2015 release Vedalam
Last Updated: 11.59 AM, Aug 11, 2023
Bholaa Shankar, which has received mixed responses for its promos and songs to date, is releasing in theatres worldwide today. The film is the Telugu remake of Ajith’s Tamil hit Vedalam , adapted and directed by Meher Ramesh. Chiranjeevi, Keerthy Suresh, Sushanth, Tamannaah played the lead roles in the action entertainer produced by Anil Sunkara under AK Entertainments.
Legal trouble
The film, which faced last-minute legal trouble this week owing to the producer’s financial settlement with a distributor Batthula Satyanarayana (Satish) related to Akhil Akkineni’s Agent, received a clearance from court for its worldwide release yesterday. However, the legal issue hasn’t been resolved fully and there’s still some tension around the digital premiere of the masala caper.
While the court dismissed four IAs (interlocutory applications) of the distributor to halt the film’s release across all avenues, they have stayed an IA pertaining to Bholaa Shankar’s digital rights for now. More details about the same is expected in an official statement today evening. The next court hearing will be on September 13. “We’re confident about getting justice,” the distributor said.
OTT rights
For the uninitiated, Netflix has acquired the post-theatrical streaming rights of Bholaa Shankar and is expected to premiere the film in the second week of September. Raghu Babu, Murali Sharma, Ravi Shankar, Vennela Kishore, Tulasi, Sri Mukhi, Bithiri Sathi, Satya, Getup Srinu, Rashmi Gautam, Uttej form the supporting cast of the actioner set in Kolkata.
Mahati Swara Sagar, son of Mani Sharma, scored the music for the film. Interestingly, Vedalam, which inspired Bholaa Shankar, isn’t available for streaming on any OTT platform. Noted television channel - Jaya TV - has the satellite rights of the Ajith starrer. Vedalam’s Telugu remake was to star Pawan Kalyan, while Neason came on board to direct it. However, the project was called off, due to reasons best known to the actor and director.