Thuramukham director Rajeev Ravi on the positives and negatives of OTT platforms

After a long wait that stretched to almost three years, Thuramukham is finally going to hit silver screens this week. The historical drama starring Nivin Pauly marks both his and director Rajeev Ravi’s first release of the year. In a recent interview, the cinematographer-director opened up about the impact the advent of OTTs had on filmmaking today.

In conversation with Onmanorama, Rajeev spoke about how he thought OTT platforms had both positives and negatives. He recalled the days when Hollywood studios first arrived in the country, and how, despite the arrival of players such as Disney, the quality of animation in Indian films did not really witness much improvement. He said that the studios at the time used to ‘rehash’ the old content that was already in existence, giving the excuse that it was what people wanted.

The filmmaker likened that to the situation of OTTs in the country today. “Maybe one in ten will be good films or series”, he said.

But at the same time, the director acknowledged that the advent of OTT had brought about several opportunities in the job market, saying that was a good thing to come out of the situation. The advent of OTTs had also encouraged the participation of a number of ‘external sources’ in the creative parts of the filmmaking process as well, which Rajeev deemed to be a good thing. The director also spoke of how some filmmakers were even engaged in making experimental films nowadays.

Rajeev also made special mention of Vidya Balan’s film, Sherni, which he said was one of the ‘finest’ films to arrive on OTT lately. He also showered praise on the film’s director, Amit V. Masurkar.

Meanwhile, Thuramukham will see Nivin Pauly share the screen with Joju George, Nimisha Sajayan, Arjun Ashokan, Sudev Nair and Indrajith Sukumaran, Poornima Indrajith, Darshana Rajendran, and Binu Pappu.

Thuramukham will hit the big screen on March 10, 2023.