AI generated summary, newsroom reviewed
When actor-filmmaker Kunal Kemmu pitched his upcoming directorial feature Vibe, the stakeholders backing the project had zero debate over where it belonged. For Amazon MGM Studios and co-producers Drongo Films, the decision was immediate: the comedy was built for the big screen, not streaming.
"At my end and Amazon MGM's end, it was always theatre. There was no doubt about it from day one," said Nikhil Madhok, Head of Original Content for India at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios.
During a special chat with THR India, Madhok said the studio read the script of Vibe and knew instantly that these are the kinds of movies that should be getting made, especially at a time when comedies are scarce.
Co-producer Chirag Nilhani, who partners with director Kemmu at Drongo Films, said the theatrical push was never about the format, it was about the experience.
The film was conceived as a communal watch, he said, not something meant to land in isolation on a laptop at home, where it would lose whatever "glory" or "potential" it was built for. Nilhani credited Amazon MGM's team for backing that vision through marketing and distribution as well, and delivering on it in full.
Madhok also used the discussion to unpack the three principles behind his programming: authenticity, theme over content, and the power of a well-placed dialogue.
Rooted, specific Indian stories travel further internationally than imitative ones, he said. Dialogue, meanwhile, is now the currency that keeps a title alive on social media long after release; Madhok cited Amazon's Mirzapur and its quotable lines as a case study in what that can do commercially as teh film released to blockbuster response theatrically.
Which is why for Vibe, the narration sealed it for him. "All three things that I look for landed at once," Madhok said.