After actor-politician Ramya raised concerns about over-the-top (OTT) platforms’ refusal to buy Kannada films, now National Award winning filmmaker Mansore, has claimed that Amazon Prime Video and Netflix are not taking up his recent film ‘19.20.21’.
“I had sent the film to both the platforms Netflix and Amazon Prime through an agency. While the former apparently does not buy Kannada films anymore, the latter has stated that my film does not conform to their current criteria. Prime people haven’t even watched the film,” Mansore told Showtime.
However, the director is hopeful that his film will be soon taken up by one of other platforms he has approached (Zee5 and Voot). Based on the real incident of wrongful incarceration of a journalism student, the movie ‘19.20.21’ was released on March 3 to positive reviews, and had a decent theatrical run.
When asked if the political theme of the film could be a reason for the refusal, the director said that Amazon should elaborate on the stated reason.
“With the rise of OTT platforms a large number of people have stopped watching films in theatres. And these platforms only buy films with good box office numbers. When ‘19.20.21’ released in theatres, many of my regular audience who could not watch it promised to watch it online. Many of them have Amazon and Netflix subscriptions and prefer them for a better viewing experience,” noted Mansore.
The director’s previous films ‘Naaticharami’ (2017) and ‘Act 1978’ (2020) had a good profitable run in Netflix and Amazon Prime, respectively. “However, Amazon abruptly removed ‘Act 1978’ without notifying us despite the film being mutually beneficial,” recounted Mansore.
At a media event in April, yesteryear superstar Ramya, who has turned producer recently, had said that there are no OTT takers for Kannada films despite ‘KGF’ and ‘Kantara’ doing extremely well. “Amazon takes a film only after it is released in theatres. Netflix doesn’t buy Kannada films at all. Sony isn’t buying, and you only have Voot and Zee. So, options are very limited…They pay a very nominal amount,” she had noted.
Amazon and Netflix are not available for comment.