Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer Gulabo Sitabo will skip theatres and premier directly on streaming service Amazon Prime on June 12.
“This June 12 join us first-day first show for #WorldPremiereOnPrime of Gulabo Sitabo! They say opposites attract. In this case, to wreck things up,” Amazon Prime India tweeted from their official account.
The film produced by Rising Sun Films co-run by Sircar and Kino Works will skip a theatrical release owing to theatres being shut with no reopening in sight in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Bachchan too, make a similar announcement on his account.
“Joined Film Ind., in 1969 .. in 2020 .. its 51 years !! .. seen many changes and challenges .. NOW another CHALLENGE .. DIGITAL RELEASE of my film GULABO SITABO !! June 12 Amazon Prime 200+ country's .. THAT IS AMAZING ! Honoured to be a part of yet another change,” he tweeted.
The film is a first major Bollywood film to skip a theatrical release and head straight to an OTT platform.
The streaming service had earlier acquired this family comedy-drama starring Bachchan and Khurrana characters who play Lucknow-based hand puppeteers, Gulabo and Sitabo.
Apart from Gulabo and Sitabo, director J.J. Fredrick last month had said that he had sold his Tamil-language courtroom drama Ponmagal Vandhal to a streaming service. The film is expected to debut on Prime Video later in May, Gadgets360 reported.
According to the report, a horror-comedy titled Laxmmi Bomb starring Akshay Kumar is also in talks with Disney+ Hotstar.
Apart from this, Netflix is also discussing the acquisition of three movies from T-series namely Anurag Basu's dark comedy anthology Ludo, sports biopic Jhund starring Bachchan, and a coming-of-age comedy Indoo Ki Jawani starring Kiara Advani.