Kunal Kemmu on Hotstar row: I didn't know till Vidyut tweeted; I wished our film also had some representation
Over a month ago, Hotstar announced a series of Bollywood films that will now release on their OTT platforms. While it had several big budgeted movies like Ajay Devgn-Sonakshi Sinha starrer Bhuj: The Pride of India and Akshay Kumar-Kiara Advani's Laxmmi Bomb, it also featured Sadak 2 featuring Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanjay Dutt and Pooja Bhatt. But the special mention was made for Sushant Singh Rajput's Dil Bechara, that being his swansong. Abhishek Bachchan's The Big Bull was also part of the same announcement.
While Ajay, Akshay, Abhishek, and Alia were present to represent their films, there was no representation of two other films on the list - Kunal Kemmu's Lootcase and Vidyut Jammwal's Khuda Haafiz. Right after the big reveal, both the actors had taken to their social media to express their disappointment on being left out of the mega virtual event. We caught up with Kunal and asked him what went through his mind when it happened. Kunal shares, "It was a mix of emotions for me. Initially, I didn't know what was happening because I wasn't aware of it. Once Vidyut spoke about it, I was aware of it. I still didn't understand because they had not announced the films in that particular tweet. I was just confused if the release date has changed again. But when I saw that, I felt 'Why couldn't our films also have some representation?' We actors are all emotional people so you feel you've worked hard on something and if it's not going to get a platform, you feel bad about it."
"It's not directed towards anybody. It's a mindset. There's no face behind that mindset. But the problem is that I may not be able to do anything about the film industry but this is a platform that came into existence when I am here and it works on content. So I felt it's right to make people aware that it's not okay but still not hold that grudge. I never said I'm upset, I won't promote the film. I didn't dwell into it. In fact, I feel that when you have so many big films and you know these might not be as big, you give it all the more love. During the promotions though, I can see the push."
Watch his interview right here: