Tollywood needs ‘Tuck Jagadish’ to become a huge OTT hit

‘Tuck Jagadish’ is all set to hit Amazon Prime on September 10. Going by Prime’s record, the family-action entertainer will start streaming from 10 pm, September 9. Ahead of its release, the Telugu film industry must be keeping its fingers crossed.

The Nani-starrer is only the second major direct OTT Telugu release this year, the first one being Venkatesh’s ‘Narappa’. It’s rumoured that Prime has bought ‘Tuck Jagadish’ by paying a whopping Rs 40 Cr (Note: Unverified news). Since the streaming giant hasn’t had to acquire big-ticket movies’ post-theatrical digital rights for about a year now (due to the pandemic, only ‘Vakeel Saab’ needed to be acquired), it’s believable that they invested heavily on ‘Tuck Jagadish’ because they didn’t need to invest the budget elsewhere.

If the Vinayaka Chavithi release clicks on Prime and helps it gain lakhs of new subscribers, the streaming giant (along with Netflix and a few other platforms) will be encouraged to acquire medium-range movies in the coming months. Whether or not the producers say it openly, having an option in the form of OTT will help them have greater bargaining power. If something goes wrong in terms of a possible third wave, at least a couple of more medium-range films will stand a chance, with OTT giants approaching them.

While ‘TJ’ has hogged headlines because of a few adverse statements made by a few exhibitors/distributors, for Telugu film producers, its OTT success will be awesome news.