Duniya Vijay’s Salaga to start streaming in July?

Ever since it was announced that actor-filmmaker Duniya Vijay had sold the digital rights of his debut directorial, Salaga, to SunNXT, fans and audiences have been eagerly waiting for the film to drop on the platform. Salaga, after all, was an October 14, 2021 release, so, it’s been well over 8 months since. While some films get delayed OTT releases, the norm, in most cases is anywhere between 30-50 days from date of theatrical outing, as has been in the case of KGF: Chapter 2 and will be for 777 Charlie too.

Today, there were reports that Salaga’s digital and TV outing will be in July, although there was no confirmation from the platform, or a definitive date. When OTTplay had asked Vijay about the film’s OTT streaming date when we called him on his birthday in January, he had said that SunNXT was looking at a festival release for the film, hinting, at the time, that it could be for Shivaratri or Ugadi. But then, that didn’t happen, and there’s been no word since. Here’s hoping that the latest buzz in the industry of a July release is actually true.

Salaga was meant to be a 2020 Ugadi theatrical release, but was then pushed ahead owing to the pandemic. Newer dates were announced a few times, only to get postponed again based on the pandemic situation and theatre occupancy. Although the producer, KP Sreekanth, was offered a fairly good deal from OTT platforms, for a direct-to-OTT release, he didn’t budge and held on to the film until 100% occupancy was announced for theatres in October last year.

The film was in direct competition with Sudeep’s Kotigobba 3 back then, and then got a day’s head-start, as the latter ran into trouble with the distributors, owing to which shows were cancelled across the state on October 1.

Salaga is an underworld story, a genre that Vijay is comfortable with, and paired him with Sanjana Anand. The film also had Daali Dhananjaya in a pivotal role.