Netflix releases a chart every Tuesday featuring the top 10 most-watched films on their platform. For the first time ever, an Indian film made it to Number One position in Global Netflix Top 10 in non-English films.
Earlier, Shyam Singha Roy was the most successful amongst all by grabbing 3rd position in the list. Now many Indian films may follow and grab the number one position but Alia Bhatt’s Gangubai Kathiawadi will always remain the pioneer.
So how did it happen?
There are two factors behind it.
The Film Factor
No strategy in 2022 can make a bad film work at the box office or OTT. There is no doubt that Gangubai Kathiawadi is an exceptionally brilliant film and Alia entrances with her performance.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a magical director. Although it does not stand against his own standards set in films like Devdas, Guzarish and more, Gangubai Kathiawadi is still far better than most films Bollywood is making these days.
So the merit of the film worked and the movie did exceptionally well all across the globe and not just in India.
The Tuesday Factor
In India, Fridays are filmdays. Most films are released on Fridays and OTT is no exception. Most new titles are dropped on OTT on Fridays itself. But in the case of Gangubai Kathiawadi, something exceptional happened.
The film was released on 26th April which was a Tuesday. Keeping in mind the run of the film, the published data considered a total 6 days run of Gangubai Kathiawadi. There is a slight difference in timezone as Netflix Top 10 follows the USA time while Gangubai Kathiawadi was following the Indian timing.
But whatever the case may be, hardly a new title gets 6 days of runtime in Netflix’s top 10 list. And more time guarantees more watch hours.
Thus the success of Gangubai Kathiawadi came as a result of Bhansali’s magical direction and Netflix’s strategy.