The week began with a flurry of announcements on theatrical releases from all major production houses in the Hindi film industry to take advantage of the reopening of theatres in Maharashtra on 22 October.
Akshay Kumar is leading the pack with as many as five films lined up for release, beginning with Rohit Shetty's big-budget police drama Sooryavanshi (2021) on the Diwali weekend. The actor also has Prithviraj (2022), Bachchan Pandey (2022), Raksha Bandhan (2022) and Ram Setu (2022) lined up for release next year.
However, Akshay Kumar recently spoke about one film of his which may not arrive in theatres despite their reopening. That film, Aanand L Rai's Atrangi Re, may be released directly on a digital platform.
In an interview with the Hindustan Times newspaper, the actor said, "To be honest, I have not yet included Atrangi Re in the list because we are still mulling over whether it should be a theatrical film or an OTT release. And OTT may simply be the medium of choice for Atrangi Re as it looks right now."
Announced in January 2020, Aanand L Rai's film ran into trouble with the announcement of the first lockdown in India in March 2020. The film's schedule was further hit when producer-director Rai himself tested positive for COVID-19. In February this year, the makers announced that the film would be released on 6 August 2021, but that plan had to be dropped because theatres in many parts of India, including, most importantly, Maharashtra, remained closed.
There has been no confirmation on the OTT release or the platform of choice yet. Atrangi Re is written by Himanshu Sharma and also features Sara Ali Khan and South star Dhanush.