The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in many ways and one of them is the way we watch movies. OTT platforms are the new cinema halls for moviegoers… We meant moviegoers – now you don’t have to go anywhere in your homes to watch movies from room to room.
As your viewing experience has evolved, so has the content. Bollywood’s Manoj Bajpayee, Ayushmann Khurrana and Pankaj Tripathi have replaced Khan – Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir. There are more movies with actresses, but A-listers have stayed away so far.
Movies have become shorter, and some are just a collection of short films – an anthology. Web series are trending, and hot favourites. Potboilers and mass entertainers have made way for subtler, more meaningful cinema. Not to worry, there are earlier movies too.
In this series, OTT Trends, News18 looks at how streaming platforms have redefined Indian cinema, blurred lines between mainstream and indie, cut language barriers, made actors into stars, and above all, Brought entertainment at your fingertips.
Streaming services, being available on the Internet, are not bound by geography. Within India, the lines between regional and national content are fast disappearing as content in different languages comes to the same streaming platform. Also, movies and web series from many other regions of the world, which are not necessarily in English, have become more accessible.
A great example is the movie 365 Days on Netflix, which became an overnight sensation, making Michelle Morrone an international star in no time. It was an Italian hero in Polish production and is one of the most visited items in many regions on many continents. Similarly, Fahadh Faasil’s Malayalam film Malik and Arya starrer Tamil title Sarpatta Parambarai is joining thousands of Hollywood and Bollywood TV shows and movies that are available in the Amazon Prime Video catalogue. Such an exchange of content on a single platform is unique only to streaming services.
While we see an increased collaboration between talents from different fields for successful projects, content consumption has transcended language and cultural boundaries. Actor Swapnil Joshi’s digital debut Samant, a Marathi show, has entertained audiences from different communities as it was available on a pan-India platform like MX Player. The actor believes that there is no such thing as ‘regional content’ anymore, as shows and movies made in any language can now be watched by anyone.
He also points out that even international hits like Money Heist are technically a regional show, as it is made in Spanish, but is consumed all over the world. “All over the world, the mantra is to go regional. This has been the key word mainly in the last year or two. Technically, Narcos and Money Heist are regional shows. Hindi is the mainstream language in India, so shows made in that language are called All India Shows.
“With OTT coming, there is no division of content in terms of national or regional. It all boils down to, in a word, a content type landscape where it is only about good content, or not so good content. So shows like Ek Thi Begum or Samantar are used beyond the language of origin – be it in Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and other languages, even outside the country where they would have been dubbed. OTT has really broken down the shield of linguistic barriers, and has taken the content to its rightful users, that if you love a particular genre of content, check it out,” Swapnil told News18.
Actress Anuja Sathe, who has featured in several films and TV shows in Marathi, made her digital debut with Ek Thi Begum, a Hindi series on MX Player. “It was not considered as a regional or national type of show, because the format we had was that every actor would speak in their character’s mother tongue. I think it was very organic. There were some Hindi-speaking characters and some outright Maharashtrian characters who spoke in Marathi. Thus widened the horizon of this particular material. It was fun working with such a format. I played a Muslim based in Bombay, so obviously the girl would understand Marathi. But their own mother tongue will be Hindi or Urdu. But the other characters were Maharashtrians and they were speaking in Marathi. So it was a great combination and a mix of all the languages that are spoken in Mumbai or Maharashtra as a whole,” Anuja said.
“There’s so much diversity in our country, and so many people want to experience other cultures. And it’s great to explore other things as well. You know, I think we’ve always had the Marathi industry, the Punjabi industry, the Tamil industry. Were – but I think they are all merging together (on OTT). And that’s a great thing, because then we are living that diversity.”
Tamil superstar Arya is taking his local story about the clash of boxing clans in 70s Chennai to a global audience next week via Amazon Prime Video. He says that earlier the streaming platform may have been taken lightly, but now it has become a great medium to reach a much wider audience. “We never explored this place like we are doing now, probably because we took it before the pandemic. But the kind of launch your film gets on platforms like Amazon, it is seen all over the world on the same day of release. The next day you know how well it has been accepted in various fields. There is no language barrier. This is a huge opportunity and a huge space with a lot still to explore,” he told News18 during a recent interaction.
Actor Rohit Saraf, who has featured in Netflix titles like Ludo and Mismatched, agrees that Indian audiences are now more accepting of content from different regions and the line between national and international content is blurring. He told IANS, “I believe that new platforms and channels are bringing in content from different regions, thereby blurring the line between national and international content. Also, our audience has evolved and so have their preferences. There is now a movie/show for every kind of audience, giving them more to experiment and consume.”
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