Bollywood filmmaker Anand L Rai released his romantic comedy Atrangi Re in 2021. At that time the world was coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic and going to the cinema hall to watch the film seemed a distant dream. This is why the director decided to make it available on Disney+ Hotstar on December 24, 2021. But years later, he regrets his decision of not bringing it to theaters.
During a conversation with Zoom, Aanand L Rai admitted that he didn’t want to wait for a few more months so that he could finally release Atrangi Re on the big screen. The filmmaker said that at that time, he had no other option but to make the film available to the audience on streaming platforms. He said, “Yes, I regret not waiting for some more time. I don’t usually have regrets, but with Atrangi Re, I realised I should have waited.”
The director further added that the Akshay Kumar, Dhanush and Sara Ali Khan starrer deserved to be released on the big screen. He also added that luck made it possible. However, even today he gets a lot of love for that film. “But yes, it should have been released on the big screen,” he said, adding that the film needed complete attention for two hours. At the time, Rai spoke exclusively to us and revealed what it was like to step into the digital world with the romantic fantasy comedy-drama film.
He told us that it was very difficult for him to understand that there is another medium called OTT for premiering films. The Raksha Bandhan director further added, “On this platform, you get a little lost in your initial days. As a director, I always judge the success of a film by understanding the emotions of the audience; whether the content has reached them or not. For theatrical mediums, you can understand that emotion by Saturday, but on OTT, it takes a week or ten days. It’s a different exercise,” Rai said, adding that he is glad that the film touched the right strings of emotions.
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