Actor Shahid Kapoor on Wednesday said his upcoming movie "Bloody Daddy" has been developed with the idea of providing the big screen experience on an OTT platform.
Directed by filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar, the crime thriller will have a direct-to-digital release on JioCinema on June 9. Kapoor, who recently made his OTT debut with Prime Video series "Farzi", said both the OTT and the theatrical experience can co-exist as "two very good options" for storytellers.
"The challenge for us is to understand how the ecosystem has changed. We need to adapt and see which content to take on which platform or the screen size. We all need to work towards that.
"A lot of people wanted this film to be out in theatres. In fact, many distributors and exhibitors called us about it but we stuck to what we truly had envisioned for this film, which was creating a big screen experience for the OTT platform," the 42-year-old actor told reporters here.
Kapoor was speaking at the trailer launch of "Bloody Daddy" along with Zafar and Himanshu Kishan Mehra.
Written by Zafar and Aditya Basu, the movie follows the story of Sumair (Kapoor) as he faces off against Gurugram’s white-collar drug lords, deceitful friends, a ruthless crime boss, murderous narcs, and both corrupt and honest cops – all during one fateful night.
It also features Diana Penty, Sanjay Kapoor, Ronit Roy, and Rajeev Khandelwal in pivotal roles.
Zafar, known for movies such as "Sultan", "Tiger Zinda Hai" and "Bharat", said the visibility and penetration on OTT is quite huge for a storyteller and a star.
"As a filmmaker, you want your content to get watched. And OTT is a platform where a lot of people come in and watch. The content that you watch here is a personal viewing," he said.
Making a film for the OTT does not mean that the team has compromised on the production value of the project, Zafar added.
"Actually it becomes an added responsibility as a maker that the content you're bringing on OTT platform needs to look more international because your viewership is more international. Also, it needs a reason to come on an OTT platform." The filmmaker also said that the film's cinematic language was a key factor in making the decision about its release.
"The cinematic language for an OTT platform is different as compared to a theatrical movie. This film is primarily dealing with drugs, there's gore, blood and a certain language people are speaking.
"And that was very important as it is what grounds those characters in that world. If I had tampered with those elements, then I would not have been honest with the story. I would have told myself that let's go to the theatres. So Shahid and I were very clear that we will make this movie for OTT and let's go 100 per cent realistic with it," Zafar said.
Kapoor said he had been looking for an opportunity to do an out-an-out action and with "Bloody Daddy", he completely surrendered himself to Zafar's vision.
"I told Ali, you're doing action for so many years, and all your actors look hot doing it. Do the same with me. So the whole credit goes to Ali. He understands how to bring action that is cinematic, gritty, not like an amusement park where people are flying here and there. Of course, that also works." As an artist, the actor said he likes action that is realistic, edgy and sexy.
"That's what he also wanted to do. It is also a very interesting combination of characters that are emotionally driven and the ambience of the world that they are part of. Those two things go hand in hand in a subject like this. So Ali really brought his A-game to this project." "Bloody Daddy" is a Jio Studios, AAZ Films & Offside Entertainment production in association with Vermilion World.
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