Laabam, the upcoming Tamil film starring Vijay Sethupathi and Shruti Haasan, will have a “big theatrical release soon,” said Sethupathi on Tuesday. The announcement comes a day after Netflix bought the streaming rights for the film.
On Monday, Sethupathi’s production house announced that Netflix India had acquired the film’s digital streaming rights. The tweet has since been deleted, and Sethupathi tweeted today to confirm that the film would not have a direct OTT platform premiere.
Socio political thriller #Laabam, its not a direct OTT premiere it will have a big theatrical release #LaabamOnTheatresSoon#SPJhananathan @shrutihaasan @immancomposer @vsp_productions @7CsPvtPte @Aaru_Dir pic.twitter.com/G27ciEmQXm
— VijaySethupathi (@VijaySethuOffl) December 8, 2020
Earlier, the film’s publicity manager Yuvraaj had told Silverscreen India that Laabam would be released in early 2021. The shooting of the final phase of the film is currently in ongoing. “The shooting will be completed within one week and the film will be released in February or March next year,” he said.
Directed by SP Jananathan, Laabam also stars Jagapathi Babu, Sai Dhanshika, and Kalaiyarasan in prominent roles. Ramji is the cinematographer, while D Imman will score the film’s music.
Laabam‘s trailer was released in August and showed Sethupathi as an activist supporting farmers who suffer at the hands of big corporate companies.
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OTT platforms Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have thus far successfully tapped into the regional film market. Netflix in particular has not only released several original regional films but has also procured the streaming rights of several upcoming big ventures.
Several big-budget films (including all of Warner Bros. 2021 films) have committed to digital releases due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before the announcement of Laabam streaming on the OTT platform, there was also speculation that Vijay Sethupathi and Vijay‘s film Master would have an OTT release. After queries from fans on social media, the film’s producers XB Film Creators and Seven Screen Studio issued a statement clarifying that they had indeed been approached by an OTT platform, but had decided on a theatrical release.