Suriya Takes Big Plunge Into OTT-verse, Announces Four Back-To-Back Releases For This Year

After tasting major success with last year's Soorarai Pottru, directed by Sudha Kongara, superstar Suriya has once again proved to be the only Tamil actor to be bullish on the OTT front. If the decision to release Soorarai Pottru directly was out of desperation, this year's move to release four of his productions onto OTT, all with Amazon Prime Video, seems to be a more confident move given the impact it would have in both his own career and also that of the industry. The four films are: Jai Bhim, Udanpirappe, Oh My Dog and Rame Aandalum Raavane Aandalum. Of these, the biggest news of the OTT release of Jai Bhim, starring the actor himself. It is being directed by Tha.Se.Gnanavel and it will be released in November.

Jyothika too will return to the small screen after last year's Pon Magal Vandhal with Udanpirappe, directed by Era Saravanan. It will release in October and Sasikumar too will be playing an important role in the film. Apart from the stars within the family, Sarov Shanmugam's Oh My Dog will release in December and it stars Arun Vijay. The fourth film in Arisil Moorthy's Raman Aandalum Ravanan Aandalum but it will be the first release when it's out next month. 

The news is important because only three major Tamil stars (Suriya with Soorarai Pottru and Dhanush's Jagame Thandhiram and Nayanthara's Mookuthi Amman) have pivoted towards the direct to OTT space. Even the decision to release Soorarai Pottru on Amazon Prime Video wasn't one that was smooth. Theatre owners protested the move and there was even talk of the Theatre Owners' Association deciding to boycott all of Suriya's films in the future. Given that the theatres have remained shut since April 2021 and given the possibility of a third wave, a theatrical release does not look feasible in the near future. 

In a press note, the actor writes, "Given unprecedented circumstances, we innovated on different models of release. Amazon emerged as the chosen streaming service for 2D's latest film launches. From Ponmangal Vandhal to Soorarai Pottru, these beautiful tales found audiences and resonance not just in India, but across the world. We are happy to take this collaboration even further."

The only south actor to be just as welcoming of the OTT model is Malayalam actor Fahadh Faasil who has already had four major direct to OTT releases since the pandemic, averaging a release every three months or so.