Ranveer Singh’s ‘83’ has said no to OTT. Will the gamble pay off?

In two weeks flat, the trailer of 83 has received over 69 million views on YouTube. At a running time of less than four minutes, the movie, based on India’s sensational victory at Lord’s in the 1983 world cup final, is one of the most anticipated releases in the recent past. Audiences across the globe will get to see Kapil Dev’s unbeaten 175 against Zimbabwe, which has never been recorded since the BBC was on strike. Of course, it will be a recreation but nostalgia overpowers everything in sight.

But for the pandemic, the film would have hit the theatres early last year and the producers – Reliance Entertainment, Deepika Padukone, Sajid Nadiadwala among others – decided against selling the rights to any OTT platform. The numbers on the table were not small. On a budget of Rs 125 crore, it is gathered 83 had offers twice that number. Now, scheduled for a 24 December release, the producers will look to make the most of a year when releases have been limited and the audience is waiting to lap up entertainment. In fact, the producers have used this time smartly to put together a 3D version and have a release not just in Hindi but across all the four languages down south.

According to Tushar Dhingra, Founding CEO, Dhishoom Cinemas, a multiplex chain in north India, it “will be a superb underdog story.” When India took on the mighty West Indies in the final, they were at an 66/1 odds to clinch the cup. “Cricket has a pan-India appeal and this film will cut across generations. It is obvious the people behind the project know the value of it,” he says. Dhingra sticks his neck out and believes 83 will have a great opening but easily could rake in Rs 300-350 crore only in the domestic market. The diaspora sitting across the world will only make the story that much more lucrative.

In terms of numbers, Rs 15-20 crore has gone by way of payout to the original winning team to secure the rights to make the film. The protagonist or rather the role of Kapil Dev is played by Ranveer Singh who has a star fee of around Rs 20 crore plus a percentage of collections as it keeps increasing. Add another Rs 15 crore for Kabir Khan’s directorial fee and you have a number of approximately Rs 55 crore. The total cost of production (overseas shooting and VFX apart from other things) is another Rs 50 crore. None of this includes the cost paid to the music composers, singers and any other expenditure plus there is a cost of marketing too.  

Trade analyst, Taran Adarsh points towards the success of Sooryavanshi (net box office collections of over Rs 180 crore) and the advance booking for Spider-Man: No Way Home as a good indicator of what to expect from 83. “There is no doubt that OTT has been a saviour for many films but the aura of the big screen is something else. 83 will be interesting because it goes behind the scenes and after all, we get to history all over again,” he says. If nostalgia in cricket can sell, nothing comes anywhere close to what every Indian witnessed in 1983. 

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