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Rajiv Rai made a grand comeback this year with the murder mystery Zora. It was released in cinemas on August 8 and now it’ll premiere on YouTube tomorrow, that is, October 2. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, the veteran filmmaker explained his thought process behind the digital premiere.
EXCLUSIVE: Rajiv Rai opens up on Zora’s digital premiere and whether Sitaare Zameen Par’s YouTube release motivated him: “Not releasing Zora on YouTube because of Aamir Khan but it gave me confidence. I had NO choice”; CONFIRMS Zora Zorawar to skip theatrical release
Rajiv Rai began by saying, “I was not very successful in doing a proper release for Zora because it is a small film. I didn’t have a lot of budget to advertise it or put in a lot of money. Moreover, 4-5 films released on the same day. As a result, PVR had a tough time allotting shows.”
He further said, “Since the time I was making the film, I planned it for YouTube. I knew no OTT platform would buy the rights as it’s a non-star cast film. They only buy when there’s a cast. Without a famous actor in the film, they would want to know the story. They would want to see the film. They would ask you a hundred and million questions. They feel very insecure. Hence, I never approached any OTT ever.”
Recently, Aamir Khan also skipped an OTT release of his film Sitaare Zameen Par and released it straight on YouTube. Did Aamir Khan’s decision motivate him to take the plunge? Rajiv Rai replied in the negative and added, “For the last 4-5 years, it was always on my mind that I’ll put it on YouTube. But I didn’t know how to do it. So, when Aamir Khan released Sitaare Zameen Par, it gave me a lot of encouragement and confidence. I was going to do it anyway. But if I had done it, it wouldn’t have made news the way Aamir Khan made news. However, he made a last-minute decision. At first, he stated that he was not releasing the film on any OTT platform. Then, he immediately released the film on OTT. YouTube is like an OTT platform. So, I don’t know what was in his mind, but I am glad he did. Hence, I am not releasing Zora on YouTube because of him. I had no choice; I made it for YouTube and to establish my channel.”
While Aamir Khan charges Rs. 100 to watch Sitaare Zameen Par on YouTube, it won’t be the case with Zora. Rajiv Rai revealed, “It’ll be available for free. There won’t be any cost for watching Zora on YouTube.”
Zora interestingly ends with a promise of a sequel, named Zora Zorawar. It’ll release on January 1 and Rajiv Rai revealed that it won’t arrive in cinemas at all. He stated, “I’ll release part 2 straight to YouTube. Theatre mein toh koi aata nahin hai picture dekhne. Then what would I achieve or prove by releasing part 2 in cinemas? To release the film in cinemas, one has to go through the Censor process etc. It is a waste of time and money.”
Joking that “I have ended up becoming a YouTube director,” Rajiv Rai also said, “I am a big director and yet, I decided to make a Rs. 2 crore film. If you don’t spend money on publicity, nobody comes in. I was not interested in it. I wanted to experiment with this platform. Hence, I decided to make a small-budget film. A lot of people dissuaded me from doing it, citing ‘You have a big name’. But I was not ready to take any risk. I didn’t care what people were saying.”
He also exulted, “Though it was originally planned for YouTube, I have done a Dolby mix and I have shot it in cinemascope format. Everybody does that as we all know we want our film to look cinematic. When you see Zora on YouTube, you’ll realize that it’s available in 4k. Dolby mix won’t be of any use (for YouTube viewing), but I still went ahead in case some streaming giant wants to premiere it. I should be ready with the soundtrack.”
Speaking of future plans, “Now, I don’t want to make films for cinemas. I am not going to take risks. I don’t even go for collaborations. Moreover, people don’t offer films to me as a director; they never have.”
He signed off by stating, “I don’t care what people say. I am releasing the film on YouTube. Jisko dekhna hai, woh dekh lega. Jisko nahin dekhna hoga, woh nahin dekhe. I am not here to prove a point. Whatever I could do, I have done it. I thank my audience and I thank Bollywood.”
More Pages: Zora Box Office Collection , Zora Movie Review
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