Taapsee Pannu’s ‘Looop Lapeta’ to premiere on Netflix on 4 February

With no immediate end in sight to pandemic-led restrictions on cinemas, Taapsee Pannu-starrer Looop Lapeta directed by Aakash Bhatia will premier on Netflix on 4 February, the platform confirmed. The film has been ready for release for a while and has been jointly produced by Sony Pictures Films India, Ellipsis Entertainment and Aayush Maheshwari. It is the official Hindi remake of German film Run Lola Run.

Pannu who made her Bollywood debut with David Dhawan’s comedy Chashme Buddoor (2013), saw her successful streak in Hindi cinema start with Neeraj Pandey's film Baby (2015), where she played an undercover agent, courtroom drama Pink which also starred Amitabh Bachchan and Kirti Kulhari and Anubhav Sinha’s Mulk. Critically and commercially acclaimed films such as Sujoy Ghosh's mystery thriller Badla, Game Over, a bilingual directed by Ashwin Saravanan, Mission Mangal which was about India's first interplanetary expedition and director Tushar Hiranandani's biographical film Saand Ki Aankh co-starring Bhumi Pednekar have followed more recently. Pannu’s last theatrical release was the 2020 drama Thappad. Thriller Haseen Dillruba had streamed on Netflix while sports drama Rashmi Rocket had premiered on ZEE5.

Last September, Sony Pictures Films India had announced a new slate of 17 films, including Hindi, regional language and Hollywood titles that it said it would bring to theatres over the next year. These include a comedy called Tera Kya Hoga Lovely, starring Ileana D’Cruz and Randeep Hooda, underwater thriller Dive, Saale Aashiq, a film on honour killings, Nikamma starring Abhimanyu and Shilpa Shetty, family entertainer Aankh Micholi and Major, a film based on the life of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan who was martyred during the 26/11 attacks.

Last month, Netflix announced a revision in prices, lowering rates by 18-60% across plans, in an effort to woo wider audiences and deepen penetration. The move sets the stage for greater competition among foreign giants including Disney+ Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video that have so far, led in terms of subscriber count with all players now evidently focusing on volume rather than value.