Prithviraj: Empuraan is not a film designed for OTTs like Joji

Fahadh Faasil’s Joji, which released directly on Amazon Prime Video, has already been celebrated as one of the best films this year. Malayalam star Prithviraj Sukumaran, who himself is gearing up for his OTT debut with Cold Case, tells us that the digital release of the Fahadh-starrer worked to its advantage. 

Talking to OTTplay on the impact of OTTs on the making of films, Prithviraj says, “The phenomenon of films releasing directly on OTTs was always meant to happen. I think it’s great; not just for the financials of the industry but also for creative reasons. Down the line, theatres will always be mainstay for large-scale films. There will be films that you and I will want to watch on a big screen with a crowd. If tomorrow, Marvel’s new multi-billion-dollar film releases on OTT platforms and theatres on the same day, I would still go and watch it in the theatres.”

The actor-director also says that theatres and OTTs will co-exist. “There will also be another kind of cinema where the liberty that an OTT platform provides, for a filmmaker to not have to subject his creation to community viewing, would actually mean that the film becomes better. Where you take a script and you think that the best way you can tell a story is to let the viewers dwell on each moment; such films will eventually be designed as OTT films. A classic example is Joji. It’s a brilliant movie that is designed and executed keeping in mind that it will be on Amazon Prime Video and it worked,” he says. 

Ask him about his directorial Empuraan, the much-awaited sequel to Mohanlal’s Lucifer, Prithviraj says, “Empuraan is never a film that is designed like that. It’s designed for the theatres, for thousands of people to sit together and watch.”

Prithviraj is set to work with Mohanlal in BroDaddy next. Cold Case, meanwhile, will release on June 30 on Amazon Prime Video.