It’s been more than 6 months since the theatrical release of Challenging Star Darshan’s The Devil, with no sign of it making it to OTT. There was a lot of speculation about the platform that the Prakash Veer directorial was likely to head to, considering that the filmmaker has a long association with certain networks as producer of a bunch of series. But then none of these rumours turned out to be positive and the film remained unavailable for public consumption following the end of its theatrical run.
It seems that the makers of The Devil have now figured out a streaming deal. Zee5, which has been doing the heavy lifting as far as acquiring Kannada content goes for a while now, posted an image of the silhouette of the actor with a caption that read ‘Coming Soon’. The Devil is expected to begin streaming on the platform shortly, with June 26 a likely date.
The Devil, meanwhile, was released in the leading man’s absence, as the actor is an undertrial as an accused in the murder of Chitradurga resident Renukaswamy. The shoot of the film was delayed when Darshan was arrested in connection with the case and resumed many months after he obtained bail. In fact, the actor had completed all his filming obligations when his bail was cancelled, rendering him unavailable for the promotions.
In his absence, his wife Vijayalakshmi tried spearheading the publicity, but that didn’t help, as the film went on to flounder at the box office after a decent start. The film had the actor in a double role, playing both hero and villain, which should have been its major highlight. But the filmmaker failed to capitalize on this double bonanza.
