Recently Kiku Sharda, an actor who plays various roles in The Great Indian Kapil Show shared his views on the advantages the show received after being transferred from TV to an OTT platform. He has been working with Kapil Sharma in his talk shows for more than a decade now.
The actor shared his views on how the shift to OTT has widened the audience for the show. He asserted earlier when it was on TV, only people of India were able to watch the show. But now the people of other countries can watch it as Netflix is a platform accessible to most of the countries in the world.
He also said, earlier the show aired for two days a week, and now it is only once a week. Less number of episodes means one can work hard and put more effort on what we have to do. All the efforts going into one episode means the content will be improved.
While the claims look logically correct, the facts fail to prove it. The show saw a significant decline in viewership after its shift to OTT. The show had an opening viewership of about 2.5 million which is way less than what it used to be on TV. In India there is a very low number of subscriber count when it comes to Netflix, this impacts the viewership of the show significantly. The content on TV was almost free which led to a huge number of people watching it. Though the show now trends as the most watched Indian show on Netflix, even making it to top 10 trending shows globally, the reduced viewership is something all will agree to.
Secondly, the kind of content the show provides is not feasible for OTT platforms (exclusively). A talk show should be aired on TV on a weekly basis where people can enjoy it. Though it can simultaneously be released on a partner OTT platform for people to watch it later as well. The family friendly humor is not something people look for in the OTT platforms which are censor free places to get dark, unfiltered and controversial content.
Still, the jokes and sketches have been better from the shift in OTT which shows indeed effort on one episode a week has paid off. The skits now cover a wide array of subjects and characters too seem like worked upon. Though the show still relies on the same old, stale jokes in the name of family friendly content.
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