I Do Not Work On OTT, My Focus Has Been The Big Screen: Mumbai Saga Director Sanjay Gupta
Amid the rise of OTT platforms in India and many filmmakers opted to release their content directly on streaming platforms because of the covid-19 pandemic, director Sanjay Gupta has once again reiterated his love for theaters. Known for his high-octane action films, the filmmaker said he has never thought of making content for OTT and asserted his films are only made for the big screen. ## "I do not work on OTT. I am not even looking at the platform. My focus has been the big screen and on what will appeal to people sitting in a closed environment, on people who make an effort to go to watch the film", he told IANS.## Mumbai Saga, which is directed by Sanjay Gupta, will be hitting theaters this Friday (March 19). The John Abraham and Emraan Hashmi starrer delayed for almost a year due to the pandemic and just like the other films, the speculation of its direct-to-digital release had also started making noise. However, Sanjay was the one who always committed to Mumbai Saga's theatrical release which is happening now. ## For Gupta, shooting "Mumbai Saga" has been quite an adventure for him due to the pandemic as there was a lot of uncertainty out there. ## "This has been an experience unlike any in my entire career. There has been a lot of uncertainty. At one point of time, it was like a life-and-death situation as there were portions to be shot and the pandemic had peaked. We completed shooting the film right in the middle of the peak. We sat on the film for six months after that".## "But somebody had to come forward among the bigger films, so we decided to go ahead and release the film. The advantage that we have over the other biggies is that our budget is not that huge. It is a calculated risk. By coming to the theatres we may not make money, but we will not lose money", he said.## However, he adds that filmmakers like him are making an effort to ensure films get a good theatrical release and making sure that Mumbai Saga gets as many screens as it can. Though he is not sure about the footfalls and has no expectations about how many people will go to theaters to watch the film. The recently released 'Roohi' showing a good trend if not as good as it was a pre-covid era. Sanjay Gupta said that Janhvi Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao starrer has shown that people are coming to theaters which is a good sign going forward. ## Stay tuned...
