Prithvi Konanur: Pinki Elli is coming to theatres in the hope it interests OTTs too

If you have not heard of or had limited exposure to Prithvi Konanur and his brand of cinema, it is probably because he is not a run-of-the-mill filmmaker churning out commercial cinema every now and then. He makes films that are realistic, hard-hitting portrayals centred on socio, economic and religious disparities, as the case may be, which tend to do well at film festivals where the viewing audience tends to be more appreciative of this kind of cinema.

In the last few years, though, with audiences being exposed to content from across the world, there is a growing appreciation for realistic story-telling, which has given filmmakers like Prithvi a boost of confidence to try and reach out to a larger section of audience. His best bet would have been to get an OTT platform interested in his film. But it so turns out that the more popular and mainstream streamers have scant interest in content from the industry and follow some unspoken in-house strategy in picking the odd title every now and then. What one does hear, though, is that a theatrical release is at the top of that list, with positive word-of-mouth giving it a fillip.

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And hence, on June 2, Prithvi is bringing his film, Pinki Elli, which won numerous awards at festivals, to theatres. He is yet to get a clear picture on what the final list of theatres and show schedules are going to be, but he’s hoping that audiences will overlook the ‘festival film tag’ and give Pinki Elli the reach it deserves.

Pinki Elli is Prithvi’s second film from 2020. He’s made Railway Children prior to that, which was also a favourite at festivals, as well as Hadinelentu, which is his most recent work. None of Prithvi’s works are available on any streaming platform at the moment, something he’s hoping to change with Pinki Elli. The filmmaker, though, is keeping his options open and while a streamer with a good subscription base would be ideal, he’s not bypassing local Kannada platforms. The goal, he says, is to reach audiences.