Gandhada Gudi on OTT: Streamer’s deal not outright sale?

When Gandhada Gudi was released in theatres last year on the occasion of Puneeth Rajkumar’s first death anniversary, it was revealed that Amazon Prime Video had picked up the digital rights of the docu-feature, in continuance of the business relationship the late actor’s production house PRK Productions has with the streamer.

The film, which had Puneeth exploring the marvels of Karnataka’s forests and wildlife, along with Wild Karnataka maker Amoghavarsha, was expected to be on the platform within a month or two, but as the days passed on, there was no news about the same. Every now and then a new expected streaming date would do the rounds on social media, even though there was no confirmation from the platform ever.

Then came rumours that the delay in streaming is because the makers were looking at re-releasing the film in theatres on Puneeth’s birthday, March 17. This turned out to be false, eventually. At one point, OTTplay was told that the team was in discussions with the new OTT player in town, Cinebazzar, about bringing the film to the platform in a pay per view format. At the time, multiple sources confirmed to us that Amazon Prime Video had not picked up Gandhada Gudi yet . Eventually, though, the streamer and PRK Productions worked out a deal after all, but sources tell us that Gandhada Gudi has not been bought outright by Prime Video. Instead, the deal is under Prime Video Direct that is dependent on streaming performance metrics. Gandhada Gudi, we are told, has an hourly streaming rate deal.

Last year, on Puneeth’s first birthday following his tragic demise in October 2021, his last commercial film, James, had released in theatres. At the time, director Chethan Kumar had said that he would look at re-releasing the film every year on the late Power Star’s birthday. So far, there’s no news on this front, so it looks like Gandhada Gudi will be the special treat for the actor’s fans on March 17.