Superstar's Film OTT Deal: Is It Real?

Superstar Rajnikanth is having a terrific time at the moment as his Jailer 2 knocks a killer punch with more than ₹700 crores to its box office tally already. At this juncture, it is coming out that Rajnikanth’s upcoming film is also enjoying the fruits of these happenings, as it bags the biggest OTT deal ever for his movies.

Rajni will be next seen in the film “Dharman”, which has Simran, Raashi Khanna and Sreeleela playing female leads, but not exactly as the superstar’s heroines. While it is produced by Kamal Haasan and directed by Ashwath Marimuthu, the film has Telugu star Ram Pothineni doing the negative role. Guess what, Kollywood is buzzing that the film packed a nearly ₹150 crore deal for the digital streaming rights, and right now the film circles are going gaga over the same.

In fact, when films like SS Rajamouli’s Varanasi are being offered a deal around ₹250-300 crores, the price that was offered to Rajnikanth’s Dharma is so huge. If that’s true, then after the promotional content comes out, definitely Varanasi might bag a deal close to ₹400 crores, isn’t it? However, some industry analysts say that the OTT market has crashed badly, and the deal offered to Dharman might be just a rumour and not true.

All said and done, if films are making more than ₹500 crores from the box office itself, it doesn’t matter what deals OTTs actually offer. Because when the box office itself is giving profits, surely the digital streaming rights are only a bonus but not something that decides the producer’s fate.