New Taapsee Pannu film to premier on Zindagi’s DTH channels

Baarish Aur Chowmein, a film starring Taapsee Pannu and Amit Sadh, directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia, will premiere on Zindagi’s DTH (direct-to-home) platforms on 27 November, the company has said.

Bypassing theatrical release in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic may be common by now but some filmmakers are preferring a television premiere instead of streaming movies on OTT platforms as an alternative. Vijay Sethupathi’s Tughlaq Darbar, Reliance Entertainment’s Mandela and Aelay and Tamil film Sarbath are among titles that saw a release on satellite television, cashing in on holiday weekends when broadcasters are known to grab family audience eyeballs and good festive advertising.

The strategy works better for small-budget films that make profits by way of satellite right sales followed by a digital premiere, not being able to command the high rates that OTT platforms are willing to pay as they vie for big star, mainstream movies for direct-to-digital release.

Indian movie channels have been looking at a mix of direct-to-television films and quick premieres of popular and niche movies to scale up viewership acquired during the pandemic lockdown, helping them fight the relatively more popular and emerging streaming platforms.

In 2020, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd launched its pay-per-view service Zee Plex that partnered with DTH (direct-to-home) platforms such as Dish D2H, Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV as well as entities in the international market besides being available on the company’s OTT platform ZEE5. The company announced two films for the new service —Ishaan Khatter and Ananya Pandey-starrer Khaali Peeli and Vijay Sethupathi’s Ka Pae Ranasingam.

Zee also announced Footfairy, an original film for its film channel &pictures, while south Indian company Sun Network had greenlit two films for direct-to-TV premieres, especially with the aim of grabbing eyeballs during the festival season where people may miss big-ticket movie releases in theatres.