Varun Dhawan returns to the big screen this year with the Raj Mehta directed, Jug Jugg Jeeyo. The actor is paired alongside Kiara Advani in the family dramedy, which also features Anil Kapoor and Neetu Singh in leads. The industry recently was buzzing with the reports that an OTT platform has made an offer of Rs 100 crore to the makers of Jug Jugg Jeeyo for a direct to digital premiere, however, the team decided to hold back on the family dramedy for a theatrical release.
The sources revealed that the idea was to entertain the audience and transport them to the colourful world of big fat Indian weddings yet again on the big screen. In an exclusive chat with Pinkvilla, we asked Apoorva Mehta, the CEO of Dharma Productions, to comment on the idea of holding back on a film like Jug Jugg Jeeyo. He said, “We have two companies, Dharma and Dharmatic. For Dharma, theatrical films are the cornerstone of our business and making films for theatres is something that Dharma has always done and will continue to do so. Dharmatic on the other hand is a company that focuses on making content for the digital platform.”
Apoorva further added, “We always curate content keeping the platform in mind too. There are some circumstances like the pandemic when you change the decisions due to the pandemic (like Gunjan Saxena and SherShaah) in the interest of stakeholders to protect the financial viabilities. But we have a sense about the kind of films we want to bring to the theatres and the ones we think are not right for the theatres.” Coming to the point of Jug Jugg Jeeyo, the filmmaker explains, “A film like Brahmastra or Jug Jugg Jeeyo are theatrical from the word go because these are the films which can be experienced only in theatres – be it the content, scale or emotions. We are very clear on our content strategy, though in some cases it might change due to the unique environment we are in.”
Jug Jugg Jeeyo meanwhile is gearing up for a theatrical release on June 24, 2022. It marks the return of Raj Mehta to direction after the 2019 comic caper, Good Newwz, fronted by Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor with Diljit Dosanjh and Kiara Advani. Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates.