By Joginder Tuteja
The week gone by didn't see a single notable new release on the OTT. Surprising, since now the week to come would be flooded with multiple original films as well as a web series arriving in quick succession.
Coming soon
This is going to be a star studded weekend ahead as Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal and Vidyut Jammwal would be bringing in their original films on OTT that were originally meant for a theatrical arrival. These are Rashmi Rocket, Sardar Udham and Sanak - Hope Under Siege. While Taapsee Pannu has already seen another original film of hers [Haseen Dillruba] make it straight to the OTT, Vidyut Jammwal too has tasted good success with Khuda Hafiz. For Vicky Kaushal though, this would be his first straight-to-digital experience.
On its announcement, Rashmi Rocket had seemed like a straight forward sports based drama about a female athlete. However, the promo of the film surprised one and all when it was revealed that this one had gender testing at the core of it and the discrimination that follows. Arriving on ZEE5, this one could well turn out to be a hard hitting drama. Taapsee has been doing a number of films where she is the central protagonist (before Haseen Dillruba she did Thappad) and now Rashmi Rocket looks like a welcome addition to the list.
Sanak - Hope Under Siege is yet another out and out action outing by Vidyut Jammwal and the makers are doing well to promote it as a film which features one of the biggest action stars at the big screen. Vidyut is now turning out to be a genre in himself and the over the years he has always guaranteed safe returns. That was the case with Commando franchise as well and with Khuda Hafiz already seeing a sequel, despite seeing only a digital release, one has good expectations from Sanak - Hope Under Siege as well which is arriving on Disney+Hotstar.
Meanwhile, life could well be coming back full circle for Shoojit Sircar and Ronnie Lahiri who were the first makers to seal a straight-to-OTT deal with their Gulabo Sitabo last year, something that has led to at least 30 notable films following suit ever since. Now they are bringing their Sardar Udham on Amazon Prime and the promo promises a classy tale that one had heard about briefly in the history books. Originally titled Sardar Udham Singh, the film should be picked up gladly by those who love to watch stories that unfolded in the pre-independence era.
For those who like to have a regular dekko at the web series emerging out of the Indian arena, there is Sanak - Ek Junoon releasing on MX Player. Incidentally, Vidyut's movie too is titled Sanak - Hope Under Siege and it's arriving just a day earlier. As for Sanak - Ek Junoon, this one reminds one of the subject of the Hollywood film Indecent Proposal, albeit with a bit of a twist. Led by Rohit Roy who plays husband of Aindrita Ray and is tempted by a proposal made by his boss Pawan Chopra, the series is directed by Krishna Bhatt, daughter of Vikram Bhatt.
Release dates
Rashmi Rocket - ZEE5 - 15th October
Sanak - Hope Under Siege - Disney+Hotstar - 15th October
Sardar Udham - Amazon Prime - 16th October
Sanak - Ek Junoon - MX Player - 16th October