We should have released ‘Bank Chor’ digitally – Vivek Oberoi

Bollywood star Vivek Oberoi, who is basking in the glory of the success of his Amazon Plus web series Inside Edge, feels that had his last film Bank Chor been released on the  web format rather the cinema,  it would have come out as a winner . “Digital is an upcoming medium and needs more investment. Our comic caper had great social media connect regarding promotion, style and post release chatter as well, so we should have leveraged this buzz by releasing it digitally. We ended up releasing it across 600 to 700 screens in  small and big cities and across time slots, expecting disparate audiences to watch the film.”

Vivek, who has done reality shows on TV, judging first 2 seasons of India’s Best Dramebaaz, adds that is the biggest learning from the failure of Bank Chor, “Today we need to tailor make content as per the medium requirements ( TV, net and cinema). Like my next spy  south film Vivegam, being a huge cinematic experience, is better suited for the big screen. But yes there are many films like Bank Chor, which connect more to youth who anyways are always online via their phones,  so we should make it available to them in their comfort zone.”
In closing Vivek adds the biggest USP of digital, apart from watching at our convenience, “ Is the absence of censor which stifles creativity .For e.g we had a very common Marathi phrase in Bank Chor, which censors found objectionable and forced us to change the word, which in a way made it more double edged than the  original.”