We always knew that most big streaming platforms in India are strongly biased towards Bollywood and Hindi viewers at large. Hindi shows and movies at Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus Hotstar et al. are created and promoted on a lavish scale, with huge budgets and monies at their disposal. On the other hand, other language content has to make do with minimal budget – both for production cost, as well as with promos.
But with its upcoming ‘Indian Police Force’, Prime Video India has taken its linguistic bias to another level altogether. Mind you, we aren’t even talking about the huge budget for the series, the big names involved, or the lavish importance being given to the series by Prime Video.
All that we want to point out is the shameless bias on display in Prime Video’s promotions for Indian Police Force. Going by the promotions, one would think that Indian Police Force has been made by Prime Video only for Hindi-speaking audiences. All promotions of Indian Police Force are concentrated in the Hindi belt only.
Massive billboards promoting Indian Police Force adorn cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Events and star appearances are also happening only in North India. But there’s nothing in the Southern states of the country – no billboards, no events, and the most annoying thing – no trailers or character introductions in any South languages.
Looks like South viewers don’t matter in the least for Prime Video India. The streaming giant is not even interested in pushing Indian Police Force to south viewers. A massive percentage of its dedicated subscribers comprises of South Indian viewers. But does Amazon Prime care? Not at all.
Prime Video, in its wisdom — or lack of it — simply refuses to acknowledge the needs of this very significant demographic of viewers. All trailers, promo videos, everything is only in the Hindi language…no other Indian languages – not Tamil or Telugu dubbed versions, let alone Kannada or Malayalam.
There’s also no word from Amazon Prime Video whether the hotly anticipated show will stream in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada dubbed versions or not. And this despite the fact that creator Rohit Shetty technically belongs to South India.
Everyone knows that Prime Video has an abysmal record in releasing dubbed versions of its most popular shows. But this time, the streamer has gone too far. Its shameless bias is on full display with the soon-to-release Indian Police Force.
Prime Video India’s Indian Police Force is directed by Rohit Shetty and Sushwanth Prakash, and jointly produced by Rohit Shetty Picturez and Reliance Entertainment. The huge ensemble cast comprises Sidharth Malhotra, Shilpa Shetty, Vivek Oberoi, Isha Talwar, Vibhuti Thakur, Karanvir Malhotra, Nikitin Dheer, Shweta Tiwari, Sharad Kelkar, Mukesh Rishi, Mrinal Kulkarni, Mayyank Taandon, Vaidehi Parashurami and Ritu Raj Singh, among others.
Indian Police Force premieres on Prime Video worldwide on 19th January, 2024.