Amazon Signs Indian Star Suriya’s 2D Entertainment to Multi-Film Direct-to-Digital Deal
Popular Indian star Suriya’s 2D Entertainment has signed a deal for four upcoming Tamil-language films. They will premiere directly on Amazon Prime Video India.
T.J. Gnanavel’s “Jai Bhim,” starring Suriya, Rajisha Vijayan and Prakash Raj, is a murder mystery where a famous lawyer helps a tribal couple who are harassed by the police. It will bow on the service in November.
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Era Saravanan’s “Udanpirappe,” a family drama about a rift between warring siblings starring Sasi Kumar, Jyotika, Samudrakani, debuts in October.
Arisil Moorthy’s “Raame Aandalum Raavane Aandalum,” a village-set satire on breaking news starring Ramya Pandian, Vani Bhojan, Mithun Manickam and Vadivel Murugan, bows in September.
Sarov Shanmugam’s kid’s film “Oh my doG” follows a happy-go-lucky boy and a dog which escapes being put down, stars Arnav Vijay, Arun Vijay, Vijay Kumar, Mahima Nambiar and Vinay Rai and will stream from December.
2D’s “Soorarai Pottru” and “Ponmangal Vandhal” bowed directly on Amazon in 2020. While cinemas have reopened in several parts of India, theaters in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, the key Indian markets for Tamil-language cinema, remain shut as the pandemic rages on. Cinemas are allowed to reopen in Karnataka, another important market for Tamil-language cinema, but many remain shut due to a lack of Indian content to release. Cinemas in the neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh and Telengana, where star-led Tamil cinema does brisk business, are open.
Vijay Subramaniam, director and head of content, Amazon Prime Video, said: “This association comes on the back of the incredible love that 2D Entertainment’s ‘Soorarai Pottru’ and ‘Ponmangal Vandhal’ received from audiences worldwide. Our local language movies, over the past year, have broken viewership records to register 50% of audiences outside their home state. International viewers accounted for up to 20% of total audiences of local language direct-to-service films. We are thrilled to lead the charge by enabling great, home-grown, local language stories to find audiences across the world. (This is) made possible because of our strong relationship with creative powerhouses such as 2D Entertainment.”
Suriya said: “The past year has been transformative. Given unprecedented circumstances, we innovated on different models of release. Amazon emerged as the chosen streaming service for 2D’s latest film launches.”
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