Rani Mukerji on Aditya Chopra not releasing films on OTT during pandemic and how Shah Rukh Khan starrer Pathaan changed the game: “The film stood the test of time and opened the floodgates for people going into cinemas”
March 7, 2024Kicking off FICCI Frames 2024 in Mumbai, actress Rani Mukerji took the stage on opening day. During her session, she discussed her career trajectory, her latest film, and other insights. A notable portion of the conversation revolved around her husband, Aditya Chopra, the head of Yash Raj Films (YRF). She praised his unwavering commitment to theatrical releases during the COVID-19 period, even when the allure of streaming platforms was strong. Ultimately, she highlighted how the Shah Rukh Khan-led blockbuster “Pathaan” revitalized the industry, proving the effectiveness of Chopra’s bold decision.
At the event on Tuesday, Rani Mukerji said, “During the pandemic, Adi (Aditya Chopra) had these couple of big films that were to be released. They were those commercial potboilers, which started in the pre-pandemic time. Unfortunately, when the pandemic started, there was a question mark on all the films. And that’s the time when I observed my husband closely because there were no talks of films releasing. There was a lot of pressure on filmmakers to release all these films on OTT and a lot of them were doing that. The biggest films were releasing on OTT. And my husband was completely calm and composed.”
She added, “I would use the word ‘conviction’, that my husband had, and he said, ‘These movies were made for theatricals, for the audiences at large to enjoy. I would want to release these films theatrically.’ He was being offered a lot of money to release it on OTT, which would be a win-win situation for the OTT platform, and for the producers, where he was making a profit by releasing it on OTT.”
Rani revealed how Shah Rukh Khan starrer Pathaan became such a huge hit that it completely changed the game for YRF and the industry. She added, “In time when the films came, all of those films flopped because the whole way the audience watched content changed overnight because of OTT. All these films failed at the box office and it took a complete hit commercially because none of the films did well. It was like complete depression. People were sad in our company and the whole conviction that Adi stood with that his movies would be released theatrically. We thought that there would be some divine intervention and that he would be rewarded for his conviction of releasing films theatrically, and everything kind of didn’t work for us. Then came Pathaan. It changed the entire thing forward at Yash Raj. And it became the highest-grossing film.”
“So when you ask me, what are the things that need to change is, filmmakers need to have more faith in the product that they make, and they should believe in it and stand with each other to make that change. Today, Pathaan stood the test of time and opened the floodgates for people going into cinemas,” she said.
On the work front, Rani Mukerji was last seen in Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway.
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