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Vidyut Jammwal’s sports action film Crack It was quite a disappointment and failed at the box office when it released in theaters in February this year. And now that the film has recently arrived on an OTT platform, we have seen something very unusual. The makers completely changed the climax scene of the film for the web release, so much so that an entire 15-minute portion, including an unexpected twist, was cut. This not only reduced the runtime of the film on OTT, but also changed the ending that was in its original theatrical version.
Director Aditya Dutt revealed that the team collectively took into account the film’s poor box office performance and decided to cut the additional climax. “We tried to tell it in a different format for OTT, just in a shorter version. We all sat down and re-analyzed the film’s performance and thought about how to make the film better. This generally doesn’t happen with all movies but you can stream your movies in different formats. It was just an exercise we thought we would do as a team, it was a call we took mutually,” explains Dutt.
In fact, the film’s co-producer Abbas Syed says that he was never in favor of a longer cut, so making changes to the ending and keeping a crisper version for its digital release was a “creative call”.
“The film ends just when Vidyut and Arjun Rampal’s fight ends. Even in the first edit of the theatrical version, we didn’t want that extra part of Vidyut jumping from the flight, and then the song comes – it wasn’t needed. The story ends between two people, the audience does not want to see the extra masala of age without any reason. Scenes were dragging that were not needed, so we shortened those scenes. So, it was a creative decision taken by the team of producers and the streaming platform.
When asked if the runtime of the film was a major point of discussion during the second edit, and Dutt says that it doesn’t really matter, as there is no set formula that can justify the runtime of the film. “We often see that a 1.5 hour film does not work whereas a three hour long film is liked by the audience, for example Animal. The idea behind speeding up the crack was completely with the intention of responding to the feedback we got that the film was slow. And when the audience doesn’t connect, you feel disappointed, but at the same time, you want to look back and re-analyze so that you can perform better next time,” he said.
The scene that was removed from the digital version featured actor Bijay Anand, who played Mark, and Arjun Rampal, who played the stepfather of Dev, the film’s villain.
Speaking to us, Nand revealed that he was not even aware of the changes made to the film for the web release.
“I am surprised, honestly I had no idea about this. This is a big deal,” he exclaims, and adds, “Maybe they thought that from an OTT point of view, the film would have to be shorter and crisper. And if you ask me, I thought the second half of the film was better, but they changed the ending, let’s see if the audience likes it or not.”
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