Deva Katta's Republic is a blockbuster on OTT, clocks 12 crore viewing minutes in a week on ZEE5

The hard-hitting political drama Republic, directed by Deva Katta, may have opened to a moderate response when it hit theatres, but is making waves ever since it digitally premiered on ZEE5 on November 26. The Sai Dharam Tej, Aishwarya Rajesh, Jagapathi Babu and Ramya Krishna starrer was the first ever film on the platform to have released with the director's commentary option. The terrific promotions for its OTT premiere has worked big time with audiences who've been showering praises on the performances, story and treatment.

Another cherry on the cake for the makers now is that the film has clocked a super-impressive 12 crore viewing minutes on the platform within a week's time. This is a unique, one-of-a-kind feat for a Telugu film on the platform and team ZEE5 deserves complete credit for raking in such huge numbers. In addition, this was also helped by director Deva Katta's enthusiasm in promoting the film's OTT release across social media, while responding to fans, comments, feedback on a regular basis. 

The director's commentary section in the OTT premiere on ZEE5 has complemented the viewing experience immensely and has helped film aficianados understand what goes into the making of every scene, character, props and extracting performances from actors. The terrific 360-degree marketing strategy by the platform has ensured that the word about the film spread quickly among movie lovers and hence, it's not surprising to notice this unanimous response for the film on OTT.

Republic revolves around the highs and lows in the journey of a newly appointed collector Panja Abhiram and his tussle with crooked politician Visakha Vani. Earlier, the Telugu movie Sridevi Soda Centre too clocked 50 million views in a week's time on ZEE5. This just goes onto prove why OTT releases can benefit a lot out of aggressive marketing. In the cases of Republic and Sridevi Soda Centre, that didn't perform too well at the theatres, the OTT releases have given the films a new lease of life.