Hondisi Bareyiri filmmaker Ramenahalli Jagannatha on the YouTube release of the film and how it worked out

Ramenahalli Jagannatha, the writer and director of the Kannada film Hondisi Bareyiri, put it on YouTube a year after its OTT outing, as part of his ongoing efforts to give it maximum reach. In an Instagram live, Jagannatha said that after he put Hondisi Bareyiri on YouTube, he received a lot of messages from filmmakers who had theatrical releases in the last 2-3 years, but have not been able to crack OTT deals, wondering how it worked out for him once he put his film on the platform for free. So, he decided to share that info publicly.

On May 17, 2024 is when Jagannatha released Hondisi Bareyiri on YouTube, more than a year after it came on Amazon Prime Video. In the two months since, the film has clocked 13 lakh views, which he says was part of his plan to give Hondisi Bareyiri the maximum possible reach. While the film was now available for free, Jagannatha posted a QR code alongside, urging those who watch the film and liked it to make a monetary contribution they think it deserves. The QR code was also embedded in the film at the start, interval point and the end.

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Jagannatha says that his main intention – of reaching as many people as possible – worked out with the YouTube release. 13 lakh people saw it, as against the 38,000 who watched it during its theatrical run. The film had a 50-day run at a few movie halls, and yet was able to attract only limited footfalls. But based on the response he got from this audience, Jagannatha was determined to reach it to more people.

As a first-time filmmaker, he realized that not all films can reach audiences and be profitable, so he chose to focus on one, the former. Once the film came on Prime Video, it clocked 100 million streaming minutes, so the OTT revenue was higher than the theatrical. Back then, Jagannatha toyed with the idea of putting the film on YouTube, because the revenue from the streamer would drop after the initial 2-3 months, but since his satellite rights were not sold at that point, he had to refrain.

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Despite all this and the Hindi dubbing rights, Hondisi Bareyiri did not achieve break even, he concedes. For instance, the revenue he got from YouTube on account of the ads is a mere Rs 1,30,000, while the QR code embedded in the film got him another Rs 30,000. For a scan code to work, he believes that the entire team of a film needs to put out the word, as that gives audiences the confidence that the intention behind it is genuine.