Aamir Khan changes the game with YouTube release, bypassing theatre trap

The release of his movie on YouTube bypasses the vicious circle of low screen density and poor monetisation that Indian films are stuck in

On August 1, R S Prasanna’s Sitaare Zameen Par was released on Aamir Khan Talkies on YouTube. To watch it, you pay around ₹100. The film is available at an “affordable” price in 38 other countries. YouTube, the world’s largest streaming platform with 2.7 billion users, will be rolling it out in more markets. 

In India, over 445 million people were on YouTube in April, according to Comscore data. If even one per cent of them pay, the film would make over ₹44 crore. Factor in the rest of the world, and it should, at a very conservative estimate, cross ₹100 crore on the pay-per-view window. Add its global box-office gross of ₹250 crore, and you get a total of ₹350 crore for this small film. Note: These are gross figures, inclusive of revenue share with YouTube/theatres and taxes. 

In an interview after the online release announcement, both Gunjan Soni, country managing director of YouTube India, and actor-producer Aamir Khan refused to speculate on how many people might watch the film or how it might perform online. They emphasised instead that the move is about expanding the market for Indian cinema. 

That is why it is a game-changer. 

In 2024, just about 122 million Indians saw a film in the theatre. That is about 11 per cent of the population, compared to 50-80 per cent in Europe and the United States. “The biggest hit of Hindi cinema in theatres has a footfall of 30-35 million people. That is about 2-3 per cent of the population. We are not able to service this large country through a theatrical release because India has very few theatres,” said Mr Khan. At 8,700 screens, India, the world’s largest film producing country, has just 6 screens for every million of its people, compared to 125 in the US and 30 in China. 

Note: 900 million people watch TV and 523 million surf the net in India. About a fourth of consumption on TV and almost half online is of films or related content. Over 70 per cent of the music sold is from films, and they power much of social media too. They are central to the ₹2.5 trillion media and entertainment ecosystem. Yet, at ₹20,000 crore in revenues, the business remains tiny — just 8 per cent of the whole pie, compared to 27 per cent for TV.

 

The usual response — these days movies are not good and therefore people are not coming to the theatres — is a nonsensical one. Manjummel Boys, Stree 2, Pushpa 2 — are all recent hits with varying degrees of cinematic goodness. Over 110 years of existence, Indian cinema has shown one thing consistently — in any given year, there will be good, bad, and average films.

 

The ability of films to monetise is the issue here. Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail, which recently won two National Awards, was the sleeper hit of 2023 because it is a good film. Yet, it grossed only ₹70 crore. Several multiplex chief executive officers have affirmed that 12th Fail could have easily done double that figure if it had a longer and wider theatrical run. In the movie business, theatres bring in two-thirds of total revenue and set the benchmark for what TV and OTT firms pay.

 

A really successful film, irrespective of cast or story, is one that reaches the largest possible audience and soaks up all the possible business on the ground before being offered on the small screen. Indian films don’t do that because there aren’t enough screens and the window between theatrical and small screen is a joke. It could be a week, two, four or eight. That is why two decisions from Aamir Khan Productions stand out.

 

First, it was loud and emphatic that it would not do an OTT deal until the theatrical run was complete. Unlike most films, Sitaare Zameen Par had no pre-sales and had not de-risked in any way. As an actor and producer, Mr Khan has shown a penchant for pushing the boundaries creatively and commercially with films like Dangal, 3 Idiots, and Rang De Basanti. Some, such as the Forrest Gump remake Laal Singh Chaddha, failed. Others broke records and won international acclaim, including an Oscar nomination for Lagaan.

 

As luck would have it, Sitaare Zameen Par became a hit. That, says Mr Khan, is what gave him the courage to put the second part of his plan in action — to release it on the world’s largest OTT platform on a pay-per-view basis. While many films, such as a few of the Mission: Impossible ones have been on the pay-per-view window, it never became a big revenue generator. By definition, subscription-based services have a limited reach. Both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video reach anywhere from 30 to 50 million people each in India. YouTube’s triple digit reach puts the whole game in another league.

 

It bypasses the vicious circle of low screen density and monetisation that Indian movies are stuck in. The big question: Can it work across languages and films? Mr Khan reckons it offers smaller filmmakers, unable to get a theatrical release, a monetisation window. Soni adds, “We are rolling out the red carpet for Indian cinema to get onto the global stage.” Here’s to taking many bows on it. 

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