With the release of his horror comedy, Laxmii on Hotstar, Akshay Kumar became the first A-List superstar to take the decision of getting his film directly on OTT platform. The move faced some sort of backlash from the exhibition community and the film, upon its release, was received with negative response from critics and audience alike. Bollywood Hungama has now exclusively got to know that another Akshay Kumar film might take the direct to digital route.
“The producers of Bell Bottom – Jackky Bhagnani and Vashu Bhagnani – have started conversations with Amazon Prime to explore the possibility of a direct to digital release, and so far, both the parties seem to be on the same page. They are discussing various prospects including the financials, and there might be some clarity within the next one month. But at this point of time, team Bell Bottom is definitely exploring the direct to digital option of release,” a source told Bollywood Hungama.
Just ahead of Laxmii release, the makers of Bell Bottom, had come up with a teaser promising that the film will arrive “only in cinemas” on April 2. Ask the source and he shares, “But a release on April 2 seems unlikely now, as another Akshay Kumar film [Sooryavanshi] is looking to arrive in the same period. Given the costs and several other factors associated with the film as also Akshay’s jam packed release calendar, the makers thought of exploring the digital release with Amazon Prime. The Bhagnani’s share a close bond with the digital platform and so does Akshay, and that’s how the meeting happened. All stakeholders are currently working towards arriving at terms and conditions that are beneficial to all of them,” the source further told us.
If the deal is eventually cracked, this would be a shocking move from the team of Bell Bottom considering that Akshay Kumar is one of the most bankable names of Hindi cinema today and is among the few superstars who commands the pull to bring the audience back to the cinemas. The cinema halls have now opened across India, and it’s about time, Bollywood gets back to normal by releasing their films on the big screen. We reached out to Jackky Bhagnani and Amazon Prime, who did not respond to our query. The film is gearing up for an opening in June.