Not so way back, OTT platforms like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix in India have been referred to as “gamechangers”. They shrugged at massive names and spotlighted sturdy scripts and strong performing. However that looks as if a distant reminiscence. Previously two years, there have been extra stars and fewer performing. It’s like a replay of the unhappy destiny of 90s’ cable TV —which began out with thought-provoking content material for each part of society, however dissolved into the melodrama and smudged mascara of saas-bahu shenanigans submit Ekta Kapoor’s success with the style within the 2000s. Besides now, as a substitute of home drama, OTT’s ‘secure’ guess appears to be crime thrillers set within the hinterlands.
“9 out of 10 executives don’t have any clue concerning the inventive side of the enterprise. They’ve probably not taken dangers or confirmed conviction. They’re ‘sure males’ and chase after these 10 stars. You see it now on OTT as nicely,” stated Navjot Gulati, author and director of movies like Ginny Weds Sunny (2020).
Now, with few new initiatives being commissioned, writers, technicians, and actors are struggling to make ends meet.
“Many new manufacturing homes and producers have been functioning like brokers and simply facilitating offers between OTT channels and stars or different manufacturing homes—it turned about making a fast buck, particularly round Covid,” stated Rahat Jain, a movie director. “However that cash has now dried up, and now, nobody needs to danger it. So, there are not any new initiatives, particularly for newcomers.”
Now, OTT platforms depend on ‘bankable’ stars or influencers with huge followings. Scripts deemed too political, controversial, and even ‘women-centric’ are shortly struck off the listing.
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Shelved initiatives, self-censorship
A hackneyed method has gripped OTT. Everyone seems to be churning out crime or espionage, whether or not in fiction or documentary format. However this appears to be much less about viewers demand than self-censorship.
“If nothing else works, simply throw a Mumbai mafia don story for nostalgia, or make the Pakistanis the unhealthy man. It’s as formulaic because it will get,” stated an unbiased filmmaker. “Nobody needs to take an opportunity or has the conviction to push for one thing new, until it has a giant Bollywood face.”
Akshay Kumar spelled doom for OTT. All these platforms purchased his movies for an enormous amount of cash, and now the money stream to do anything has dried up
-Navjot Gulati , filmmaker
Nobody appears to need to guess on historic dramas and even slice-of-life tales—genres with a historical past of ‘offending’ the federal government or fringe teams. Even household dramas have receded into the background. Now, some established TV reveals are simply imported to OTT—like The Kapil Sharma Present to Netflix.
As many as 20 initiatives are on maintain, stated a producer who was concerned in a number of OTT sequence in India—and everyone seems to be working from pillar to submit, attempting to get productions began.
“Given the environment the place nearly anybody will get offended, the OTTs are actually strolling on eggshells and indulging in self-censorship. The end result is movies and sequence primarily based on a slender vary of topics,” stated actor Danish Husain, who has appeared in OTT sequence reminiscent of Bombay Begums. “Dependence on bankable faces and studio interference in the inventive course of is constricting areas for unbiased and important voices.”
In recent times, the concern of presidency censure has solely grown, with a number of high-profile controversies.
It began with Amazon Prime Video’s Tandav (2020), a thriller sequence about pupil politics, starring Saif Ali Khan, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub, and Sarah-Jane Dias. The present was hit with FIRs, relentless trolling, and a Ministry of Data and Broadcasting (I&B) summons for allegedly ‘hurting non secular sentiments.’ The ‘controversial’ sequences featured Ayub as Lord Shiva in a university play, discussing methods to construct a social media following that would rival Lord Ram’s. Regardless of an apology from the makers, the second season of the present was axed.
Tandav’s destiny despatched a chilling message, prompting Amazon Prime Video to tug the plug on different doubtlessly ‘dangerous’ content material, together with Vishal Bhardwaj’s present on the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airways flight IC 814.
“They have been so paranoid, they nonetheless are, that they didn’t need to contact something political,” Bhardwaj later stated. He additionally claimed that his display screen adaptation of The Exile: The Flight of Osama Bin Laden was shelved for a similar cause.
However content material doesn’t need to be overtly political to be deemed ‘offensive’. In January, Netflix eliminated Nayanthara-starrer Annapoorani from its platform after Hindu teams alleged it was “anti-Hindu” and filed an FIR. Zee Studios, one of many producers, wrote an apology to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, stating that the movie—a few Brahmin chef who cooks meat— would keep off the platform till edited.
In June, Netflix additionally confronted authorized warmth for Maharaj—a pre-independence historic drama starring Junaid Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat—when followers of the Vaishnavite Pustimarg sect filed a petition in opposition to the movie. It was lastly granted aid by the Gujarat Excessive Courtroom and launched on 21 June.
The newest flashpoint is Netflix’s IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, directed by Anubhav Sinha. This tackle the 1999 hijacking confronted backlash from the federal government and the general public. BJP data cell chief Amit Malviya accused the present of “whitewashing” the terrorists’ faith through the use of code names like ‘Chief,’ ‘Physician,’ and ‘Bhola’ as a substitute of their actual names. Netflix India’s content material chief, Monika Shergill, was summoned by the I&B Ministry, and the present then up to date its disclaimer to incorporate each the actual and code names of the hijackers.
OTTs are in “a state of paralysis” due to three massive developments, in accordance with Husain. First, they have been ready for the overall elections to see if the political panorama shifted. Then, they wished to see the path of the brand new broadcast invoice— which, by the way, prolonged regulatory oversight to OTT platforms and got here with a ‘censorship clause’. And at last, the trade additionally anticipated main consolidations—Sony and Zee’s (failed) merger, in addition to Jio’s takeover of Disney+ Hotstar.
“All these put them (OTTs) in a directionless spot for a while now,” Husain stated. “The summoning of Netflix’s IC 814 makers by the ministry isn’t serving to both.”
ThePrint contacted Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Sony Liv for remark through e-mail. Whereas all three listed their upcoming initiatives, they didn’t present information on when these initiatives have been commissioned or once they could be accomplished. In addition they didn’t touch upon the OTT downturn.
Shift to the ‘secure’ lane
Between censorship fears and the inflow of recent rivals, OTT platforms are jostling for area. Regional gamers are biting into the pie, whereas conventional subscription fashions are shedding floor to ad-based options. It’s now not nearly high-quality content material—it’s about who can survive the squeeze.
One fast-growing advertisement-based platform is Amazon miniTV, which cranks out brief, snappy reveals. With unknown faces and bite-sized narratives, these reveals are cheaper and faster to supply and rake in income by way of focused advertisements—one thing subscription fashions can’t do. It’s focusing on the 18-34 age group, and providing free content material to all Amazon customers, Prime membership or not.
OTT platforms depend on subscriber information from media trackers like Ormax to determine what’s trending. In keeping with a screenwriter who has written for Indian OTT reveals, the younger grownup market is the place the motion is and studio executives are attempting to leverage this.
“That’s the reason you see quite a lot of younger grownup reveals on Amazon miniTV,” stated the screenwriter.
Then, there’s additionally a race to seize untapped, rural audiences.
In 2023, OTT viewership grew by 13.5 per cent, reaching 481.1 million individuals, up from 423.8 million in 2022. Nonetheless, penetration in rural areas and small cities, which make up a main chunk of the inhabitants, stands solely at 23 per cent, in comparison with the pan-India determine of 34 per cent.
The issue is herd mentality. As soon as a sure sort of film turns into a success, everybody will instantly make some model of it. The catchphrases since 2023 have been ‘100 crore thought’, ‘pan-India really feel’, ‘500 membership entry’—these are what individuals say when pitching concepts
-Pranjal Khandhdiya, producer
This wrestle to interrupt into rural and Tier 3 and 4 markets has fuelled the rise of ‘massy’ content material, typically mimicking the method of TV reveals. And, as trade insiders level out, significant content material has taken a backseat.
“What stage of execution is current within the content material presently being produced on OTT platforms? And who’re these content material producers? What data do they possess? Have they got a grasp of our epics and literature? My level is that they don’t,” bemoaned filmmaker Prakash Jha in an interview a couple of months in the past.
The shift towards ‘masala’ formulation is clear in current OTT collaborations. Netflix has partnered with Yash Raj Movies on three upcoming initiatives, kicking off 2024 with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi, a big-budget sequence starring Bollywood names like Sonakshi Sinha.
Amazon Prime additionally launched the 12 months with the high-profile however critically trashed Indian Police Drive, directed by Rohit Shetty and starring Sidharth Malhotra and Shilpa Shetty. And one in all its newest choices, the frothy comedy Name Me Bae, is produced by Dharma Productions and headlined by Ananya Pandey.
Star ‘energy’, money drain
One of many issues almost everybody lauded OTT for was the ‘finish’ of star tradition. A number of the largest hits in recent times rode on good scripts and unknown faces—from Prime Video’s Mirzapur and Paatal Lok, to Netflix’s Jamtara and Mismatched, to Sony Liv’s Rocket Boys.
However that has modified. The tide started to show with theatrical releases, and OTT platforms shortly adopted go well with.
What modified the sport for theatrical releases was Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan (2023), which crossed the Rs 1,000 crore mark worldwide and have become one of many highest grossing movies of the 12 months. Pathaan’s success reignited the demand for star-driven content material in cinema. Massive-budget, big-name movies like Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani, Jawan, and Animal got here on its heels. And OTTs weren’t far behind.
“The issue is herd mentality,” stated producer Pranjal Khandhdiya. “As soon as a sure sort of film turns into a success, everybody will instantly make some model of it. The catchphrases since 2023 have been ‘100 crore thought’, ‘pan-India really feel’, ‘500 membership entry’—these are what individuals say when pitching concepts.”
This herd mentality has now spilled over to OTTs too, the place manufacturing homes are going for formulation they suppose will yield one of the best viewership. OTT content material has now turn into all about cuss phrases, intercourse, crime, or nationwide safety threats—no matter has confirmed to drive numbers.
Filmmaking has turn into a enterprise and this has broken the trade, in accordance with filmmaker Prakash Jha.
“When satellite tv for pc channels provide Rs 400 crore to actors like Ajay Devgn or Akshay Kumar, then cash turns into the key phrase. You begin shopping for rights to movies from different languages, get the director too, and with the impetus to generate profits, and turnover strain, these movies are being made,” he stated in Hindi throughout the identical interview quoted earlier.
The impression of theatrical releases will be felt on OTT platforms too. Earlier, satellite tv for pc TV would purchase theatrical releases, however now OTTs fulfill that position. And with extortionate multiplex ticket costs, extra individuals choose to attend for big-screen movies to land on OTT platforms. This has helped some small-budget movies, like Laapata Women, which beat Animal on Netflix to turn into one of the vital streamed motion pictures.
However when OTT platforms purchase massive funds, star-studded movies, the dangers are larger and the returns approach decrease.
Filmmaker Navjot Gulati identified that an over-reliance on stars is draining OTT platforms.
“Akshay Kumar spelled doom for OTT. All these platforms purchased his movies for an enormous amount of cash, and now the money stream to do anything has dried up,” he stated. Gulati famous that stars like Kumar proceed to revenue and have their movies purchased by OTTs, even when they ship flops.
In 2020, Hotstar reportedly purchased Akshay Kumar’s unreleased movie Laxmii for a direct to digital launch for Rs 125 crore, a choice Gulati questioned.
“Did the spending garner new subscribers? If there are not any new subscribers, how does the OTT platform earn cash?” he requested.
This enterprise mannequin can also be evident within the case of Ajay Devgn, whose current movies—other than Drishyam 2 and Shaitaan— have sunk with out a lot as a ripple. But, for the net sequence Rudra, a remake of Luther, he charged Rs 21 crore per episode, pushing the present’s funds to Rs 200 crore.
There’s no proof that these selections have generated income or new subscribers. As an alternative, trade sources say platforms are merging—like Hotstar with Jio Cinema—to deal with rising prices and elevated competitors, particularly after earlier overspending.
Regional rejection
At the same time as OTT platforms pour cash into massive stars, regional and unbiased initiatives are left within the chilly. Even movies that win state or nationwide awards face an uphill battle to get picked up. Producers of small-budget, critically acclaimed initiatives typically discover themselves caught in limitless conferences with OTT executives, often with little to indicate for it.
“I used to be requested by an OTT govt who the star of my present is, and if viewers members will recognise an Assamese actor,” stated one Assamese producer. He was even requested if he would think about making his sequence in Hindi as a substitute of Assamese.
If we’re consistently nervous about funds and producing work for ourselves, there gained’t be out-of-the-box considering even on the script stage. Danger shouldn’t be a author’s sport—producers, executives, and studios have that mandate
Anu Singh Choudhary, screenwriter
A Nationwide Award-winning Malayalam director echoed the identical wrestle.
“You must undergo a number of conferences solely to get rejected as a result of they don’t ‘know’ who the lead of the movie is. That’s as a result of they don’t watch something however business output,” he stated.
On the finish of the day, the adage ‘content material is king’ doesn’t appear to carry true for OTT platforms.
“Individuals with spending energy need to pin their hopes on stars as a substitute of scripts or somebody’s creativeness. Traders need cash, and OTT at the moment are investing in stars. And even they’re failing,” stated filmmaker Sudhir Mishra.
Sony Liv is among the few platforms that gives a stability of Hindi and regional content material inside the identical subscription bundle. Amazon Prime, in the meantime, has tie-ups with platforms like Manorama Max and Lionsgate Play, although accessing newer content material requires paying an extra Rs 200 or extra.
Additionally Learn: Male gaze has met its match. Girls writers are rewriting Bollywood, Aarya to Rocky Aur Rani
Writers’ woes
When the pandemic hit, individuals turned to their laptops and TVs for aid. India was launched to the likes of Mirzapur’s Kaleen Bhaiya, Aarya’s titular anti-heroine, the scholars of Kota Manufacturing unit, the police inspectors of jamunapaar Delhi in Paatal Lok, and lots of different memorable characters.
Such was the growth in screenwriting that folks gave up high-paying, steady jobs to attempt their luck in writing. OTT-writing workshops emerged and writers’ names appeared within the credit. And briefly, simply briefly, it appeared like a golden period was on its approach.
However writers are among the many worst hit by the slowdown in OTT. There’s unanimous settlement that work has considerably dried up, and funds are sometimes delayed.
“If we’re consistently nervous about funds and producing work for ourselves, there gained’t be out-of-the-box considering even on the script stage. Danger shouldn’t be a author’s sport—producers, executives, and studios have that mandate,” stated screenwriter and writer Anu Singh Choudhary.
Even skilled writers wrestle to get work and well timed fee, with some even placing their goals on maintain.
“I needed to take an everyday job as a result of writing was not paying. I wrote for no matter got here my approach—advertisements, YouTube movies. In spite of everything, one has to pay lease and survive in Mumbai,” stated one screenwriter, a Movie and Tv Institute graduate with a well-liked OTT present to her title.
Two of her movies, signed in January 2023, have been dropped by July that 12 months. By then, she knew she had no alternative however to search for a job. And it wasn’t simply concerning the lack of labor—she was additionally requested to be “much less feminist” or change the age of her feminine protagonist when pitching scripts to community heads.
“A number of the feedback have been, ‘Are you able to make your protagonist 25ish? Really, are you able to make this character male?’. This was not even suggestions about my writing,” she stated.
By this time, OTTs had turned away from female-led reveals. Budgets have been slashed, and some productions have been stopped halfway.
“With all these pan-Indian, hyper-masculine movies, OTT too now needs related content material,” she stated.
It’s no shock that a lot of OTT content material now revolves round crime or hinterland tales.
“Add a couple of cuss phrases and a intercourse scene, and actually each different present is beginning to look simply the identical on OTT. It’s similar to the saas-bahu trope within the 2000s—working after ‘massy’ was the dying of TV, and we’re heading in that path right here too,” stated Khandhdiya.
And nobody appears to have cracked the code for Gen Z content material.
“They don’t need to see 50-year-olds romancing girls half their age. They name this out,” Khandhdiya added. “And if OTT goes the identical approach, then Gen Z would reasonably spend time on Instagram and 30-second reels.”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
