It’s become obvious that modern streaming services have no problem with canceling unreleased films or shows – even if they’re already finished. Now it’s been revealed that Netflix has once again abandoned an unfinished movie.
As shared via Deadline, Indian director Dibakar Banerjee had his new film Tees shelved by Netflix. It’s certainly a disappointing outcome for any filmmaker hoping to find distribution. Even worse, Netflix has yet to unveil their reasons for having shelved the film in the first place.
On the bright side, the streaming giant is allowing Banerjee to shop the film to other distributors. But even this process has become complicated by Netflix. As explained below:
“Netflix confirmed that it has given Banerjee permission to send links of the film to potential buyers, but the streamer does not appear to support festival screenings of films it’s not planning to release. Banerjee says this puts him in a ‘chicken-and-egg situation’ as he doesn’t know how to reach buyers without a festival or market screening.”
As for the plot of the film, it’s been described as “the story of an Indian family interwoven with the personal, ideological and sexual history of India.” As a result, director Banerjee believes that India’s changing political climate could have influenced Netflix’s decision to shelve the movie.
“Netflix has never given me any other reason except they don’t know if this is the right time to release the film,” Banerjee explained. “Given what happened with Tandav, the only conclusion to reach is that Netflix is reluctant to release the film out of fear of being similarly targeted. But the film I have made is very different to the web series in question.”
Though Banerjee added the following statement regarding how Tees was abandoned by Netflix and that he doesn’t believe it’s a confrontational film:
“It’s not about any incendiary incidents – it’s about the daily life of an average middle-class urban family over three generations. But now my story is becoming eerily similar to one of the protagonists in the film,” he says.
“I also believe this is my best film to date. Although it has universal themes, it was made for an audience that remembers my other films, and is attuned to watching a film made by me, so it saddens me that they won’t be able to see it.”
Tees was announced in 2019 as a Netflix Original under the title Freedom. It was shot in 2020 before having been delivered to Netflix in May 2022. As such, we’ll have to see what happens with this project going forward.