By Joginder Tuteja
The week gone by was pretty dull for the OTT platforms with not even a single notable new film premiere or web series release on any platform.
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With festive season on, things would turn out to be pretty bright for majority of OTT platforms, what with three notable films seeing a digital premiere. While Hum Do Hamaare Do and Dybbuk were made for theatrical release, they are opting for straight-to-OTT release. As for Aafat-e-Ishq, it was designed as an OTT film to begin with. What also makes these films special is the fact that each of them has a Bollywood star in there.
Let's talk about Hum Do Hamaare Do first, which is the biggest release of the week. The family comedy is produced by Dinesh Vijan of Maddock Films who has been enjoying a happening time in theatres as well as OTT in 2021, what with as many as four releases. The year started with Roohi [Rajkummar Rao, Janhvi Kapoor, Varun Sharma] which released in theatres and was the highest grossing Hindi film till Bell Bottom happened. This was followed by Kriti Sanon and Pankaj Tripathi's Mimi which was a critical as well as commercial success on Netflix. Post that arrived Shiddat just a few weeks back and the Sunny Kaushal and Radhika Madan film was noted for its music on its Disney+Hotstar release.
Now it's time for Rajkummar Rao and Kriti Sanon to come along with Paresh Rawal and Ratna Pathak Shah in a family comedy set up. Promo of this Abhishek Jain directed film is hilarious and promises a clean comedy. Had the film released in theatres, it would certainly have taken a good opening. No wonder, Disney+Hotstar is gung-ho about the film.
Aafat-e-Ishq is another comedy and this one has a folklore/supernatural feel to it. The Neha Sharma starrer was announced some time back and has now seen a release date been announced. The promo indicates a twisted-n-quirky affair, and that is expected too given the fact that the director at the helm of affairs is Indrajit Nattoji who has made another quirky comedy Aagey Se Right [Shreyas Talpade, Kay Kay Menon] in the past. The film releases on ZEE5 and is amongst the series of films that premiere straight here on a regular basis.
What has surprised though is the sudden release announcement of horror film Dybbuk. Earlier titled Ezra (same title as the Malayalam original), the film has Emraan Hashmi leading the show. The actor has already seen Mumbai Saga and Chehre releasing in theatres, and then immediately on the OTT platforms. Now Dybbuk with Nikita Dutta as the leading lady is arriving straight on OTT but surprisingly with only 10 days promotions. The trailer indicates that director Jay K has put together a gripping horror drama. Hopefully that's the case too.
Release dates
Hum Do Hamaare Do - Disney+Hotstar - 29th October
Aafat-e-Ishq - ZEE5 - 29th October
Dybbuk - Amazon Prime - 29th October
Stay tuned for more updates.