Shahid Kapoor on Bloody Daddy: ‘Exhibitors wanted our film in theatres but we chose OTT release’

Shahid Kapoor's Bloody Daddy will stream on Jio Cinema. (Photo: Varinder Chawla)

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Shahid Kapoor on Bloody Daddy: ‘Exhibitors wanted our film in theatres but we chose OTT release’

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After gaining massive viewership thanks to IPL, Jio Cinema is now launching its first set of original content. After the film Kacchey Limbu and Randeep Hooda-starrer web show Inspector Avinash, Shahid Kapoor’s actioner Bloody Daddy will also drop on the platform. Helmed by Ali Abbas Zafar, it is a remake of French movie Sleepless Night (2011).

At the trailer launch of the film, Shahid and Ali spoke about their film and pressed on the fact that it was best suited for OTT. The filmmaker, who has earlier made films like Tiger Zinda Hai and Sultan shared that every film has its own cinematic language, and Bloody Daddy’s needed a digital platform to tell the story honestly.

“Content is evolving and in the past three years, we have all seen how audiences’ preferences have changed. Also, when you make content for OTT, it’s a bigger responsibility to mount it at a larger scale, at international level, as people across would be watching it. The budgets today are big and one can create a similar movie experience, to be consumed on one’s own devices. As for Bloody Daddy, the film deals with drugs, blood, and gore, and it was important that we kept it on the same ground. We didn’t want to tamper it to suit it for theatres, and thus decided to have a direct-to-digital release,” Ali said.

Watch | Bloody Daddy trailer: Shahid Kapoor shooting a flamethrower looking like desi John Wick. Watch

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As the host discussed how some of the recent IPL matches had more than 2.5 crore tuning in, Shahid Kapoor said that the numbers in actuality is many fold more. He said, “That is the number of devices logged in. Every TV in India on average has 3-4 people watching, and hence the total number would be close to 10 crore. It’s a great achievement if we can actually reach that many audiences for our film.”

The actor also added that both OTT and theatres will continue to be part of the same ecosystem and not clash with one another. As artists and creators, he also added that the energies can be divided.

Also Read | Shahid Kapoor confirms Bloody Daddy to drop on OTT: ‘If we do action of this scale on streaming, what do we do now for big screen?’

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“While watching content at home is a more personal experience, theatre will continue to be an event for families. Both will have their own phase. For content creators, there are more avenues to choose from, and they just need to know which platform they should take their content to, and then work towards it. Everyone has been telling us how our film could have been in theatres, it’s slick and cool. Even exhibitors called us, wanting it but we had truly envisioned Bloody Daddy on a digital platform. It was created for OTT,” the actor said.

Shot amid the pandemic, Shahid Kapoor revealed that the film was shot in a record 36 days. He added that given they had to work in a restricted environment leading to higher production cost and efforts, Ali brought down the number of working days. He also shared that he has known Ali even before he became a director, and was looking forward to collaborating with him.