Anurag Kashyap’s directorial Nishaanchi, starring Aishvary Thackeray, Vedica Pinto, Monika Panwar, among others, had released in theatres in September this year. The result had not been impressive, with low box office collections. It had ended on a cliffhanger, promising a second installment. But now, two months later, Nishaanchi 2 has quietly been dropped on a streaming platform instead.
We reach out to Anurag about this decision, and he says, “It was my suggestion, and our collective decision between Amazon (producers) and us.”
He attributes it to the underwhelming support from viewers, “Had the audience turned up for part 1, there is no way the second part wouldn’t have been released in cinemas. And since most of the reaction was that the film felt incomplete to everyone, it was decided to let them have the complete experience.”
A story about twin brothers and how they end up taking different paths in life, the direct to OTT release of the second instalment had not been promoted. Elaborating on it, Anurag says it happened because of the mandatory eight week window which exists between a theatrical and OTT release for any film.
“No marketing could be done because of theatre-OTT rule… theatres don’t allow to even promote the film or drop it anywhere for 8 weeks, and OTT has to do their part of the deal. That’s another thing that theatres themselves don’t adhere to it. They will cancel shows and throw the film out if it doesn’t open, not allowing the word of mouth to build up. That’s how they treat non tent-pole films. It’s pretty one sided, and I have seen my films being discarded my whole career by exhibitors themselves. We were lucky that we had a studio, who also has a streaming platform, producing our film and backing us.”
{{/usCountry}}“No marketing could be done because of theatre-OTT rule… theatres don’t allow to even promote the film or drop it anywhere for 8 weeks, and OTT has to do their part of the deal. That’s another thing that theatres themselves don’t adhere to it. They will cancel shows and throw the film out if it doesn’t open, not allowing the word of mouth to build up. That’s how they treat non tent-pole films. It’s pretty one sided, and I have seen my films being discarded my whole career by exhibitors themselves. We were lucky that we had a studio, who also has a streaming platform, producing our film and backing us.”
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