Agent to Release on OTT in Just 21 Days!

Akhil Akkineni's latest movie "Agent" had a disastrous run at the box office from the start, and it is set to exit theaters within a week of its release. Due to the poor performance, the film will be available for streaming on SonyLiv from May 19, just 21 days after its theatrical release. This trend of early OTT releases for movies that did not do well in theaters is becoming more common. Even Ravi Teja's "Ravanasura" had an early OTT debut within three weeks. However, last year there was opposition to this practice, with strikes and a new rule passed stating that Telugu movies would have to wait four weeks for small-budget movies and eight weeks for big star-studded movies before releasing on OTT.

The rule also prohibited the display of any OTT/digital/satellite partner names before the start of the movie in theaters, and theater owners demanded that the OTT partner name not be included in the promotional material of the film. However, it seems like the rule is not being enforced as movies are still getting released on OTT within 2-3 weeks of their theatrical release, and no one is opposing it, including theater owners or exhibitors. It was predicted that this kind of rule would not work in practice, as if a film flops badly, the producer would try to recover at least some of their losses by selling early OTT rights rather than waiting for 4 or 8 weeks.