'Gulabo Sitabo' featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Ayushmann Khurrana to release on Amazon

Bollywood film "Gulabo Sitabo" featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana will be released on Amazon's streaming service instead of cinemas due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The film directed by Shoojit Sircar had been scheduled to open in theatres on April 17.

But India has been in a strict coronavirus lockdown since late March and cinemas remain shut.

Amazon said the movie will now premiere on June 12 and be available in 200 countries and territories worldwide -- in what Sircar called "the dawn of a new era for Indian entertainment".

Analyst Akshaye Rathi said the move reflected "a tectonic shift for Bollywood and how the business will be done in the future".

"The Indian film industry has to keep the release window alive -- either in theatres or digitally -- to survive," Rathi told AFP.

"The industry has to stop thinking about the next two quarters and focus on surviving for the next two decades by embracing technology."

Amazon operates in a crowded field in India, alongside not just Netflix but also others such as Hotstar -- partnered with Disney -- in the fight for eyeballs in the market of 1.3 billion people.