The film and entertainment industry has been pushed to make quite a few innovations in the past few months. And Ishaan Khatter, Ananya Panday & Jaideep Ahlawat starrer, Khaali Peeli, was no different. However, their unique strategy presented the movie stronger. Khaali Peeli was the first Bollywood movie to have a simultaneous multi-format release, and boy has it paved the right way! Having premiered on the last long weekend, thanks to its October 2 release, the movie has been flooded with great reviews and phenomenal success.
Ever since the trailer for Khaali Peeli came out, it has been creating quite a stir. From the sensational action-packed plot, to the stellar cast, there is a lot packed in that had people excited. The opportunity to actually enjoy a movie in select theatres was indeed the cherry on top. And thanks to all this the film has become a raging success with everyone from DTH operators to critics & fans, all singing praises of this full-on entertainer.
Talking about the movie’s release and its reception, film critic Joginder Tuteja stated, “I guess the best part about the release of Khaali Peeli in the drive-in theatres has clarified a couple of things. Firstly, the audiences are really hungry for a film to come in and at least have a theatrical experience. We saw how the drive-in shows were totally sold out and the response was good. Secondly, I think now this whole nepotism thing can be buried because we had got Ananya Panday and Ishaan Khatter, and there were so many accusations of nepotism. These guys have gone out there and audiences have also gone to watch what they have to offer. Even from the performance’s point of view, this film is a masala film and from that aspect, both of them did pretty well. Whether we see in IMDB or elsewhere, it actually quashes that as well. The IMDB rating shows 2/10 and we all know how that works; but if you ask the real audience, it’s totally different, which again shows that when it comes to people who are actually watching the film vis-à-vis people who are most likely not, can go ahead and ruin the ratings. So a lot of positives have come out of this. This is the first film which has actually started monetizing in some way theatrically, even though it was a minuscule amount but at least the start has been made.”
Popular trade analyst Komal Nahta was quoted singing praises of the movie. “That Khaali Peeli was made for the big screen is evident from the content. Yet, if proof was ever required, it came in the form of 6 (out of 6) housefull shows of the Drive-In, make-shift cinemas, it was released in. Had the film released in normal times, there’s no doubt, it would’ve been a big winner,” he shared.
Khaali Peeli was created for a theatrical release and as the trade experts and critics say, would have been one enticing watch for our movie nights. Cognizant of continued spread of the pandemic, the makers decided to make the movie accessible to everyone via release on a brand new platform called ZeePlex – which in itself has set new ticket sales and viewership benchmarks. As an experiential offering the makers also created a makeshift drive-in theatre in Gurugram which ran housefull on all days.
Over the weekend, there were 6 shows that were arranged and they all ran with a 100% occupancy as movie lovers thoroughly enjoyed watching this treat while maintaining all the social distancing norms. This was a pleasant surprise for fans who have been missing hitting the theatre for the Friday night movie dates and clearly won their hearts.
