EXCLUSIVE: Rana Daggubati on theatres vs OTT: For movies like Avengers, you have to come back to theatres

In a recent Facebook Live, Rana Daggubati shared his thoughts on how big films like Avengers and Star Wars requires the big screen theatre experience. The Baahubali star also admitted that OTT is a more democratic medium.

By Pinkvilla Desk

Updated on May 18, 2020 | 02:19 PM IST | 3.5M

Rana Daggubati spoke candidly about theatres vs. OTT in the post COVID era.

In a recent Facebook Live, Rana Daggubati shared his two cents on what he feels about the entire theatres vs. OTT debate that has taken over Bollywood. Especially, with films like Gulabo Sitabo and Shakuntala Devi hitting the OTT platform rather than the desired theatrical release, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the discussion has now reached new heights. "Everyone takes a call on what is OTT and what is film. As a company, as an organisation or even as actors, what we realise is that anything that leads to drama and issues of censorship, where one can't tell that story on theatre, we completely moved all of that to OTT," shared Rana while discussing censorship.

However, Daggubati made a valid point of how big spectacle movies still need a theatre for the effective pleasure it will induce in the audience. "But, anything that is still large and spectacle, we will continue to back it for the theatres for a simple reason that man has; from the time of Colosseum, we needed a place to go together and watch something big. There's a more dramatic way of narrating characters in anything that is OTT. But, when you watch Star Wars or Avengers and when you watch anything that is big and you want it to blow your mind off, that usually has to come back to the cinemas," the Baahubali actor reasoned.

"Post this whole COVID era, there is a very nice thing that's happened which is a large number of people are working from home. That's probably a greater sign for cinema across the world where you're stuck at home the whole day instead of being stuck at the office. The first thing that you run out to is a restaurant or a movie theatre. Because you want to see people, you want to be entertained and that's human nature, right?," the 35-year-old actor added.

Moreover, talking about how OTT is the more democratic medium, Daggubati concluded, "It just might be a delayed process but what we are looking at is that the world of OTT is going to create so much talent in terms of filmmakers, in terms of writers. Because they can absorb a lot of things. In cinema, you have 5,000 theatres or a restricted number of theatres. It's only a handful of us that can actually get our films out there. Here, it's a much more democratic medium so we're just looking at it differently. Rather than this becomes that or that becomes this."

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Naik Naik and Company in association with Pinkvilla are conducting Live sessions on Facebook- “Post COVID-19 - The Rise of a New Dawn”. The three-day initiative (15-17 May) aims to bring together celebrities and influencers from across the Media and Entertainment industry to share their thoughts on how to plan the future post COVID-19.