Mumbai: Kiran Rao’s directorial ‘Laapataa Ladies’ wasn’t a hit commercially, but impressed viewers once it was made available on OTT platform Netflix.
Criticising the Hindi film industry’s lack of support and bad marketing system, Aamir Khan’s ex-wife called Bollywood ‘Dhobi Ka Kutta’.
“It had a very short window before going to OTT, which we were worried about because the film was getting such good word of mouth and it was playing well in cinemas,” she was quoted as saying by News18.
“The second it got on Netflix, it actually amplified our word of mouth and our theatrical revenue actually went up. It went on to do well in theatres for a good month after Netflix release before it petered off. And that’s pretty rare,” she said, adding that ‘Laapataa Ladies’ performed as good on Netflix as Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s ‘Animal.’
“That really shows you that these platforms aren’t really competitive. We are not, as a film industry, supported by any state government. Even in Uttar Pradesh, we’re not the state language, Bhojpuri is,” she said, while calling Bollywood “dhobi ka kutta” for lacking a clear identity.
“It feels really sad. We get all the brickbats. Everybody keeps talking about how bad Hindi films are and they’re never successful. Within the industry, we’re just a mammoth beast and there’s no one organisation that can take decisions for everyone. So, we’re in a tricky spot,” Kiran continued.
Talking about the marketing system, she said, “Marketing is really like shooting in the dark at this point. Even cinemas, which should be excited to show your trailers, don’t show them so you have to tag your trailer onto another film. Sometimes, you have to pay them to play your trailer, just like you pay for an ad. It makes no sense to me.”
“OTT is benefitting from a lot of failures of our cinema system,” Kiran concluded.