'Gehraiyaan' second most-watched direct-to-OTT Hindi release; check out top five
Shakun Batra's directorial Gehraiyaan has emerged as the second-most watched direct-to-OTT Hindi film in the first half of 2022, as per an Ormax Media report. Gehraiyaan was hailed for digging deep into multilayered relationships, and it also has the distinction of being the first Hindi movie to have an intimacy director on set. It starred Deepika Padukone, Ananya Panday, Siddhant Chaturvedi, and Dhairya Karwa.
Gehraiyaan, which was released on Amazon Prime Video, has reportedly registered a whopping 22.3M views so far! Padukone's portrayal of Alisha—a 30-year-old grounded yet ambitious yoga instructor—won her significant critical acclaim, and her sizzling chemistry with Chaturvedi raised the mercury. Co-produced by Dharma Productions, it was also compared to Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, another film that explored the concept of infidelity.
Meanwhile, A Thursday—starring Yami Gautam Dhar and Neha Dhupia—has secured the top spot on the list with 25.5M views. The Behzad Khambata directorial dropped on Disney+ Hotstar in February. The third position has been clinched by Kaun Pravin Tambe? (20.2M views), which also released on Hotstar in April and chronicled the real-life story of the titular hero—a cricketer who debuted in IPL at 41!
At the fourth place is Jalsa, a social commentary thriller anchored by Shefali Shah and Vidya Balan. The Amazon Prime Video release was watched by 13.9M viewers. The fifth position is bittersweet since it has been bagged by Rishi Kapoor's swansong Sharmaji Namkeen with 12.7M viewers. Notably, since Kapoor couldn't complete the film, Paresh Rawal stepped into his shoes for the pending portions.
Several highly anticipated and big-budget films, headlined by major actors, have decided to traverse the direct-to-OTT route in the second half of 2022. Some of these include Good Luck Jerry (July 29 on Disney+ Hotstar) and Darlings (August 5 on Netflix). Akshay Kumar and Rakul Preet Singh's remake of Ratsasan, reportedly titled Kathputli, is also rumored to drop on Hotstar in the coming months.
