Three big movies featuring top heroes from Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam industries are set to have a direct OTT release on Amazon Prime Video, and this comes across as major boost to the streaming giant's market in South, particularly at a time when coronavirus pandemic has lead to closure of theatres.

Malayalam OTT exclusive movie “C U Soon,” starring Fahadh Faasil is set to release on September 1, Tollywood action thriller “V” starring by Nani is releasing on September 5 and Suriya starrer “Soorarai Pottru” is set to premiere on October 30. Ever since the lockdown was announced, Amazon which is one of the top OTT players made the right moves and capitalised the opportunity and announced world premieres of Bollywood movies “Gulabo Sitabo,” starring Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana, and “Shakuntala Devi,” starring Vidya Balan which were direct OTT releases.

On the other end, their competitors like Disney Plus Hotstar and Netflix too had lineup of movies including Sushant Singh Rajput’s last movie “Dil Bechara”, Akshay Kumar starrer Kanchana remake “Laxmmi Bomb”, and Jahnvi Kapoor’s “Gunjan Saxena,” etc. South cinema contributes 44% of the nation's box office, and in 2018-19, out of 2,446 films certified 501 were Hindi and 336 were Kannada, 254 Tamil, 281 Telugu and 219 Malayalam films. Currently, Amazon has been making positive progress in gaining stronghold of the south OTT market as they premiered Jyothika starrer “Ponmagal Vandhal,” Keerthy Suresh starrer “Penguin,” and Aditi Rao Hydari starrer “Sufiyum Sujatayum,” besides Kannada movies “Law” and “French Biriyani", during the lockdown.

In an attempt to conquer the Tamil OTT scene, Amazon is set to launch a Tamil Amazon original series named Comicstaan Tamil Semma Comedy Pa. Of the upcoming movies coming on Amazon, “C U Soon,” directed by Mahesh Narayan is shot on an iPhone, told via multiple screen devices, and stars Fahadh Faasil, Roshan Mathew and Darshana Rajendran, V directed by Mohana Krishna Ingraganti is a cop vs killer movie with Sudheer Babu as the cop and Nani playing the antagonist, “Soorarai Pottru,” by Sudha Kongara is inspired by the life of former army captain GR Gopinath who launched a low-cost airline and stars Suriya.

Aa said by Vijay Subramanian, the head of content at Amazon prime India, with the help of quality subtitles and dubbing, movies are breaking language barriers, and are streaming movies in 200 countries and territories. Suriya when announcing the OTT premiere of Soorarai Pottru expressed his happiness that audiences across the world will be able to watch the movie on Amazon Prime Video from their homes in the pandemic situation.

Despite all these developments on the OTT space, theatres in India and around the world will definitely reopen post pandemic and the digital streaming services will definitely be losing the privilege of releasing some highly anticipated movies and expected biggies directly, as theatrical model will be preferred by the same makers who are selling their movies now for a direct premiere. While Amazon seems positive making the right moves to establish themselves among South movie watching audience, and with the boost given by three big upcoming releases, the streaming giant now has an edge over other OTT platforms, and let's see how they further strengthen themselves post normalcy.