It is well-known that most small films these days are mere "formality releases" at the box-office. The producers of those films know well that their titles don't stand a chance. At best, they collect Rs 2-5 lakh, if you are talking about Telugu movies. This won't cover the budget spent on the pre-release event.
These "formality releases" target the OTT business. The theatrical release is incidental to them.
As per a Pinkvilla report, film producers are resorting to cheating out of their greed for OTT deals. Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Disney Plus Hotstar give the producers a strict deadline before which they will have to submit the final copy for post-theatrical OTT streaming. If this deadline is not met, the existing deal is called off by the streaming platform and a fresh deal will be negotiated. This renegotiation, most of the time, will put the film producer at a disadvantage.
To avoid this unenviable scenario, some film producers in the Hindi film industry, lately, are bringing unfinished products to theatres. These films are unfinished in the sense that their VFX, colour grading or some other aspect of the post-production is incomplete. The few thousand audience members who are unfortunate enough to watch these half-baked products in theatres get disappointed.
As per the aforementioned report, the OTT platforms are waking up to this fraudulence happening in the name of "formality releases".
