Actor-director Kamal Haasan, who prides himself on revolutionary thinking in filmmaking in which he takes more parts than just playing the hero, is sticking his neck out — releasing his latest trilingual film Vishwaroopam on the same day on the DTH platform.
The traditional film business that has run 100 years on the theatrical release model is up in arms over sharing of revenue with new modes of distribution. While Kamal’s intentions aren’t entirely altruistic, and have a lot to do with generating maximising revenue by exploiting a film release’s hype, he does make a point about looking at tomorrow in reaching out to the customer in his comfort zone. In an era when films must recover costs as quickly as possible with release on a vast number of screens, the economics of a near-simultaneous DTH premiere are still unclear.
What Kamal Haasan has done is to strike out a brave new course, withstanding threats from sources obviously connected with his controversial plans, while also having to compute costs of the danger of leaks from possible piracy off the transmission and illegal viewing in public places like clubs and hotels. The idea is so new there are bound to be complications; the actor has bought himself some time to try and get all his revenue partners on board. For the sake of those who can enjoy a new film in their living rooms, we hope Kamal Haasan does set a trend by succeeding with his theatre-DTH plans.