Just within two weeks of its theatrical release, Karthi’s new film Vaa Vaathiyaar arrived on Prime Video. The movie, which was supposed to hit the big screens in December 2025, finally hit the big screens during Pongal 2025. The film was pushed back due to the financial hurdles of the production house.
The Telugu version, Annagaru Vostaru, skipped the theatrical release altogether and hit the streaming platform directly. However, within hours of the film’s digital release, audiences have started criticising the streamer, and their reaction makes sense too. While the Tamil version highlights MGR’s glory, the Telugu version is entirely based on the legendary NTR.
Many OTT platforms now release one common video for all language versions and just change the audio. This approach was also used for Annagaru Vostaru. Because the visuals remain the same for every language, Telugu audiences end up seeing MGR on screen while the dialogues talk about NTR, which breaks immersion and spoils the viewing experience.
In short, the audio–visual mismatch makes the film feel confusing and ineffective. Also, this new release strategy makes no sense at all. Going forward, it would be better if OTT platforms release different video files for different versions to enhance the viewing experience.
Also, a lot of hard work goes into creating dubbed versions to bring a film closer to audiences of other languages, and releasing a common video file only means undermining the team’s hard work.