Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum on OTT: Theatre owners asked me to delay its streaming release, says Akhil Sathyan

Post pandemic, it’s not often that a movie earns more from its box office on its fourth week than it did in the first two. But that’s exactly how the box office graph of Fahadh Faasil’s Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum has picked up.

In an exclusive chat with OTTplay, ahead of the movie’s OTT release on Amazon Prime Video on May 26, Akhil tells us about the feedback of his debut directorial, which has emerged a superhit despite some tough competition from Jude Anthany Joseph’s 2018 the past month.

Also read: Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum review: Fahadh Faasil’s charm, feel-good factor prop up Akhil Sathyan’s confident debut 

“Surprisingly, theatre exhibitors have been calling me since yesterday to delay the OTT release by two weeks. But it’s an agreement that we had signed in November 2022 and so there’s nothing we can do about it,” says Akhil. “Right now, after the buzz of 2018 died down, the audience are buying tickets for Pachuvum Athbhuta Vilakkum as well. All of this has been heartening.”

A section of the audience – especially families – also preferred Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum over 2018, based on the Kerala floods. “It’s a positive and happy film that happens in a fictional space. So, I am thrilled about the feedback especially because we didn’t give enough publicity for the film either. In fact, the worst collections for the movie were on its first day and after that the content of the movie promoted itself,” says the filmmaker, who had written its script and edited it.

Also read: Fahadh Faasil handled his role in Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum like Mohanlal did in my dad's movies: Akhil Sathyan 

On why the team didn’t go heavy on the promotions of the family entertainer, Akhil says, “There are two reasons for that. Fahadh was in a totally different look for his movie Aavesham and didn’t want that to go out. So, we knew he wouldn’t come to promote it. Also, because I was also editing the movie, I was responsible for its content delivery. I was tied up with that till the eve of the film’s release and I couldn’t focus on the movie promotions at all.”

Though the OTT release is happening at a time that the film’s theatrical revenue is picking up, the filmmaker says he has no regrets. “My father’s (Sathyan Anthikad) movie Achuvinte Amma had a similar graph; it didn’t work well in the first week but was houseful in its fourth week. Similarly, we had housefull shows last weekend. Ultimately, the film will grow on the audience.”

Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum, which also has Anjana Jayaprakash, Viji Venkatesh and Dhwani Rajesh, will release in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu on Amazon Prime Video.