John Abraham said OTT platforms rejected The Diplomat, which delayed the film’s theatrical release.
John Abraham-starrer The Diplomat has been in theatres for a week now and has managed to hold its own despite facing tough competition from Vicky Kaushal-starrer Chawa, which has been ruling the box office for over a month now.
In a new interview, John was asked about the buzz in the industry about The Diplomat, after the film was rejected by several OTT platforms, which delayed its theatrical release. The actor-producer admitted that since no OTT platform was willing to buy the film, the studio behind the film lost confidence in it.
In recent times, several filmmakers have shared that it is almost impossible to make and release a film without the support of an OTT platform.
In a conversation with Pinkvilla, John said that he and director Shivam Nair were the only ones who did not lose faith in the film. “When a studio sees a film and when it goes to OTT, the studio wants to mitigate the risk by sending it to an OTT channel.
When some OTT channels rejected The Diplomat because they didn’t like it very much, they didn’t like it, they rejected the film, they threw it out, so what happened was that the studio also got scared and said the film is not good, nobody is liking it and they put it in a box,” he said.
John added that since the studio has invested money in the film, it is understandable that they would have some fear. “You have to understand that the studio invests money in these films, so sometimes their fears are justified,” he said and added that in the case of The Diplomat, they proved OTT wrong.
“In the case of The Diplomat, we have proved the studios wrong, we have proved OTT wrong, we have proved everybody wrong,” he added. John even claimed that The Diplomat will hold its own at the box office if the studios and distributors put their full might behind it.
He said this even when Salman Khan starrer Sikander is less than two weeks away from release. “Mark my words, The Diplomat will survive. It will only fall if the studio and distributors lose faith in it.
The studio needs to market this film. You are marketing something that people have seen and said is a great film,” he said and added, “It is up to the studio to put all its might behind it and make this film run for the next six weeks because it has substance.”
According to SacNilc, the film has earned Rs 19 crore in its first week. In the same interview, John was also asked what the eight-week window between theatre and OTT release is like. Recently Aamir said that the window length is too short for films to run in theatres because the audience already knows that the film will be available at home in two months.
John agreed with Aamir and said, “I would tend to agree with him because I believe you need a bigger window. Aamir has a lot more experience than me and he is a lot smarter than me so he understands the space better and I think what he says matters a lot.”
John Abraham said streamers ‘rejected, threw out’ The Diplomat: ‘I’m proud to prove OTT wrong’
