Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare on OTT: When and where to stream Nithin Krishnamurthy's hit campus comedy

“Kannada audiences are not coming to theatres; it’s difficult to put a finger on what they like” – this has been a common refrain among filmmakers for quite a while. In the first six months of the year, audiences were disappointed with two majorly hyped titles – Kranti and Kabzaa – and were miserly with their love for films like Orchestra, Mysuru! and Hondisi Bareyiri when they were in theatres. On OTT, it was a different story for the two smaller films, but with the streaming platforms then changing their policies to not buy content from the industry prior to a theatrical release, things have been difficult for Sandalwood.

On July 21, the small-time but well promoted film Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare opened up the floodgates with audiences coming in droves to catch the campus comedy directed by debutant Nithin Krishnamurthy. Driven primarily by its innovative promotional campaigns, the film, which has a bunch of newcomer actors, took the box office by storm, despite being pitted against Hollywood biggies like Oppenheimer and Barbie. The film continues to do well across the state in its second week, even though two other good Kannada films have joined in for a share of the market.

Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare was presented by actor-filmmaker Rakshit Shetty in theatres and was among the lucky few to have managed a satellite and digital rights deal prior to its theatrical outing. The film had been sold to Zee Network and the latest we hear is that Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare will land on the streamer Zee5 Kannada shortly after the 1-month mark. August 25 is when the film will be available to stream.

The announcement comes only days after it emerged that the team was looking at releasing a Telugu version in theatres, dubbing for which was completed recently.