Yoodlee Films adopts wait-and-watch approach for the release of Zombivali

Cinema halls have reopened in most states in India after a shutdown of seven months and it looks like Maharashtra, too, will get the green signal soon. Hence, the indie production banner Yoodlee Films remains hopeful about its upcoming Marathi film Zombivali (2021) getting a proper theatrical release. However, the banner is currently adopting a wait-and-watch approach.

Siddharth Anand Kumar, vice-president, films and events, at Saregama India, said in a statement, “It’s good news that the government has facilitated the reopening of theatres. This is the much-needed fillip that we were hoping for, given the grim situation we have faced in the last six months. We will, however, assess the behavioural patterns of cine-goers for the next couple of months and draft a release strategy for our forthcoming films.”

Directed by Aditya Sarpotdar, Zombivali stars Amey Wagh, Lalit Prabhakar and Vaidehi Parshurami.

Siddharth Anand Kumar said shooting for the film has been completed. “Our Marathi horror comedy Zombivali is getting into the post-production phase now," he said, "and we are hoping to get an ideal release situation in the coming months. We certainly don’t intend to rush into a theatrical release, unless and until a semblance of normalcy is seen with the audiences.”

Yoodlee Films is known its slate of award-winning independent films in Hindi, Marathi and Tamil, which includes the likes of Ajji (2017), Hamid (2019), Noblemen (2019), Music Teacher (2019), Axone (2019) and KD (2019). Earlier this year, the banner released the film Chaman Bahar (2020) on Netflix.

Talking about Yoodlee's future plans, he said, “After Tamil and Marathi, we want to make films in various regional languages and tell fresh stories rooted in unexplored milieus. For us the story and the narrative is important, the language is incidental. We just hope that releasing films in theatres becomes less fraught with uncertainty in the months to come.”