Exclusive! Anoop Menon on Padma’s OTT deal: ‘It was a highly profitable film for me as a producer’

Anoop Menon marked his directorial debut with Padma this year, and followed it up with two other releases in King Fish and Varaal – both having him in capacities other than as its lead actor. The filmmaker is gung-ho about the possibilities that new revenue channels have opened up for movies, especially ones that are made on limited budgets.

Ask him about the feedback on his directorials King Fish, which is streaming on SunNXT, and Padma, which is expected to drop on Amazon Prime Video soon, he says, “Whoever saw King Fish loved the movie. I couldn’t release it well because I was in the US. It did good business in terms of its OTT and satellite rights. Padma, on the other hand, was profitable to me as a producer. I always wanted to make a movie on modern-day marriage. Considering that it was shot within those pandemic restrictions, I believe it came out well.”

The director also explains that the possibility of releasing a movie on an OTT platform also allows filmmakers the freedom to conceive and go ahead with such projects. “You can’t do both these films expecting revenue from theatres. Varaal was made for theatres, but Padma and King Fish could also be viewed on portable devices,” he says.

Then why opt for theatrical releases for both films? “Padma, right from the beginning, we had planned an OTT release, but when a few of my colleagues from the industry watched the movie, they asked, ‘Why can’t you release this in theatres? It’s your first film.’ So, I decided to release the films in theatres,” he says.

Anoop also explains that the feedback for Padma help land a better OTT deal for the film. “Padma only had a three-week run in the urban areas. But the kind of response that the movie got, also reached the ears of the streaming services and they approached us,” he says.