For Sajid Ali, Laila Majnu (2018) might have been his debut directorial that released, but it certainly wasn’t his first. Instead, it was Woh Bhi Din The, which has finally seen the light of day, thanks to OTT. Elated to now see the film streaming, Sajid tells us, “This is my first film, and will always be the most special thing I have ever done in life. It is based in Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) where I grew up, and the school I went to.”

He believes that had the medium of OTT not emerged, his film would still be lying in the cans. “I don’t know why the film had not been released then. I have understood there are market dynamics that play their part. If it wasn’t for OTT, nowadays, a film like mine would have gone into the grave. It would have never come out. Who will take the chance of releasing an old film in theatres? Nobody! OTT has offered a second life to people like us,” shares Sajid, whose brother, director Imtiaz Ali’s Amar Singh Chamkila is set to drop on streaming.

In fact, Laila Majnu, which received a tepid response in theatres, later ended up taking off when it hit an OTT platform. Sajid, well aware of this, explains why. “When you make a film with people who are not well-known, not everybody would give it a chance. Not just in terms of money, but also as a viewer, to make the effort of travelling physically to a theatre. You have got to have some excitement to do that. Very few at that time were inclined towards Laila Majnu, and I understand,” he says.

Nonetheless, he feels that it was a brave decision to go ahead with a theatrical release initially despite casting two newcomers — Avinash Tiwary and Triptii Dimri. “It was my idea to cast new faces and the producers really supported it. It definitely got a new lease of life on OTT. TV is there, yes, but it wouldn’t have been like this. Thanks to the Internet, we are still talking about it,” he adds.

The one thing that Sajid has witnessed on streaming platforms is the prevalence of bold scenes, strong language, dark content and lack of family entertainment. “I have kids now. When we watch something at home, I have got to be constantly checking whether they are sleeping or not. We tend to always find something we can watch together; you either end up with animation, which sometimes you are not in the mood for. Sometimes, you push them [the children] to watch something beyond their years, but also something safe. That [kind of] content is very less. I would like to watch a nice comedy with my daughter, but I am always suspicious,” he wraps up.