Amitabh Bachchan plans digital premiere of Marathi film AB Aani CD sans theatrical release

Amitabh Bachchan's Marathi film AB Aani CD released at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to impact India, due to which theatres had to be shut down. Now, the film is all set for a digital premiere on May 1.

Produced by Akshay Bardapurkar, the dramedy is directed by Milind Lele and also features Vikram Gokhale. The film was one of the first few theatrical releases to impacted by the nation-wide lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak in India.

The film will be released on Amazon Prime Video on Maharashtra Day. Talking about its digital premiere, Bardapurkar said, "In the current circumstances, public safety and health is of paramount importance. It therefore made absolute sense to digitally debut this beautiful movie with our streaming partner Amazon Prime Video.

Bardapurkar added, "In association with Prime Video, we are thrilled to release the film to mark Maharashtra Day and Labor Day as an ode to our all frontline heroes in the battle against COVID. It is our humble tribute to an enormous effort which will be remembered for a long time."

AB Aani CD is a coming-of-age film that follows two playschool friends Amitabh and Vikram who meet almost after 70 years at a birthday party. Bardapurkar said, "After facing a great amount of revenue loss, this time around the makers would not like to take any chances and they are in talks with a few insurance companies to understand that if all types of calamities/ pandemics are covered in it along with almost all unforeseen circumstances."

"Once we have clarity, the idea is to secure the film right from the inception, it's high time we give importance to such important things and not to leave everything to destiny, as producers lives on the fact that the film will get its full release everywhere be it theatres or any other platforms," added Bardapurkar while talking about losses incurred due to the removal of the film and post COVID-19 era.