Sanjay Gupta opened up recently about the current trend of re-releasing older films in theatres and said that the times are desperate and theatres have no material. His production Visfot, starring Riteish Deshmukh and Fardeen Khan, had a direct-to-digital release last week.

In an interaction with Bollywood Bubble, Sanjay said, “I don’t think even re-release of films makes a huge difference. The numbers are really negligible and a lot of time has passed. So, a lot of films that came in the millennial years and the audience in their 20s today, were just born so they are just catching up on that cinema. But the stars are the same and they look the same. However, I don’t think there is any brand loyalty for something like for a Sholay, we had. We are in desperate times now because the theatres have no material. They are trying everything, even the exhibitors are trying everything.”

Speaking about why Visfot had an OTT release, he added, “Once it was ready, we watched it our first reaction was that it is supposed to be a big screen film. This deserves to be in the theatres. But it was always considered, conceived, executed, contracted for direct to OTT. So, we never really questioned if it was supposed to be in theatres.”

Older films like Rockstar (2011), Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), Laila Majnu (2018) and Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein (2001), among others have been re-released in theatres recently and have managed to do a good business at the box office.