How did Karnan's box office affect Narappa's release? Here's what producer K S Thanu has to say

Actor Venkatesh has been smart with his remake choices all through his three-decade-long career and has moulded himself to play diverse characters in the Telugu remakes without losing the soul of the original version. It was his idea to remake Asuran in Telugu after which his producer-brother Suresh Babu watched the film and was convinced to greenlit it. When they approached Tamil producer K S Thanu for the remake rights, the latter too expressed his interest to co-produce it. After the shooting was done and a call had to be taken about the release of Narappa amid the fears of a COVID-19 third wave, here's what Thanu told Suresh Babu.

"Thanu had released Karnan just a few weeks before India was grappling the second wave of COVID-19. Theatre owners were asked to reduce occupancy by 50% and he still went ahead with Karnan's release. While the film took a blockbuster opening, it was inevitable that COVID-19 took a toll on the revenues and the producer had a bitter experience with it. He was worried about being stuck in a similar situation with Narappa and didn't want to risk it this time around. It was not an easy call at all. One must see this as a step towards the future. Many in our team, fans were disappointed and we couldn't help it," Suresh Babu said to the media recently.

The producer also added that he completely understands the problems faced by the exhibitors and feels OTTs and theatres are here to co-exist. "If someone feels OTTs are a temporary reality, they better come out and smell the coffee. We need to understand that it's a new revenue model that might make the filmmaking business more profitable for the producer," he shared. Narappa releases on Amazon Prime Video on July 20. Besides Venkatesh, the film also features Priyamani, Karthik Rathnam and Rajeev Kanakala in key roles.