83 director Kabir Khan has revealed that the makers might decide to release on OTT if the COVID cases in India continue to rise and theatres are shut down. 83 starring Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone released theatrically on 24 December after being delayed due to pandemic.
Kabir Khan told MidDay, “This film was ready with us 18 months ago. We wanted people to see it on the big screen because that is how it was designed. But such are the times that we live in. We tried hard to acquire a safe spot for the film, but the day of its release, there was a spike in cases. By day four, Delhi theatres had shut down.”
While reiterating that he wants people to watch the film in theatres (with precautions), Khan added, “We don’t know if we will have to shut down tomorrow, or will be afforded another five to six days. If further restrictions are imposed, we will release the film on the web, soon.”
The Delhi government directed theatres and multiplexes to shut down as COVID cases continued to rise in the city.
83 tells the story of India’s historic win at the 1983 Cricket World Cup and stars Ranveer as Kapil Dev and Deepika as Dev’s wife Romi Bhatia. The sports drama also stars Harrdy Sandhu as Madan Lal, Saqib Saleem as Mohinder Amarnath, Tahir Raj Bhasin as Sunil Gavaskar, and Dhairya Karwa as Ravi Shashtri.
While the film has been appreciated by celebrities and many film critics, it hasn’t performed as expected at the box office.
Talking about the same, Kabir Khan said, “He (Kapil Dev) said, ‘When we won the World Cup in 1983, we didn’t get money. We got respect. You made this film [to get] respect, and you are getting that. Concentrate on that.’ Only he could have explained this with such positivity.”
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