The new Kannada show ‘Ekam’ is about to premiere on OTT on the 13th of July this year. But it is not going to stream on any huge OTT giant like Netflix or Zee5. It is to have a platform of its own titled ‘Ekamtheseries.com’. But the situation that compelled the makers to create a platform like this is not very delightful.
The makers have claimed that the OTT giants rejected the show because it was entirely in Kannada. The Kannada film industry has produced so many gems of cinema in recent years. Movies like ‘Kantara’, ‘Avane Srimannarayana’ or ‘Sapta Saagaradaache Ello’ have impressed audiences all over India. It hurts more because the show stars Raj B. Shetty And Prakash Raj and is produced by Rakshit Shetty. The three are award winning actor-directors and have enriched Indian cinema with movies like ‘Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana’, ‘Puttakkana Highway’, and many more. It is a shame that filmmakers cannot market and distribute original movies and shows in their own language.
It has happened previously as well. The Malayalam show ‘Instagramam’ by Mridul Nair could not find any buyers in the OTT market. ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’ had to be released on the relatively unknown platform Sainaplay, as the big ones had rejected it, owing to its The Kannada industry has been suffering for a long time and this bias is not allowing creative and original content to reach its audiences.
Netizens are angry over the incident and an outrage is following. Filmmakers like Rakshit Shetty and Raj B. Shetty having to create a platform for only one show and not being able to stream it on a big OTT platform like Netflix only for its language is a shame for the whole OTT industry.
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