Netflix is a highly popular OTT platform across the globe and India is no exception. Having said that, the streaming giant is still trying to find ways to retain and increase its subscriber base in this part of the world. Previously, it was competing for the big Indian OTT pie with rival players like Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, and SonyLIV. But the equation has changed with the arrival of the revamped version of another biggie, JioCinema.
So, what can Netflix do in order to crack the Indian OTT market in a big way and to stay ahead in the game? One business–content model which it can aggressively adopt is simply hiding in plain sight.
Netflix, and in fact, all major Indian OTT Platforms are sitting over a largely untapped content bonanza. We are talking about books-to-OTT adaptations which are based on relatively unknown books. OTT platforms, especially Netflix, can focus on targeting these kinds of relatively unknown yet brilliantly written books whose OTT rights can be acquired at a reasonable and affordable cost.
The critically acclaimed Netflix crime drama series ‘Trial By Fire’, which came out earlier this year on Netflix, is a perfect example of such a potentially profitable business–content model. ‘Trial By Fire’ was based on Neelam Krishnamoorthy and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy’s book ‘Trial by Fire: The Tragic Tale of the Uphaar Fire Tragedy’ and the series adaptation had found many admirers on Indian OTT.
Another recent example is Hansal Mehta’s hard-hitting journalism-based series ‘Scoop’, which started streaming on Netflix earlier this month. ‘Scoop’ is based on Jigna Vora’s book ‘Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison’. The show is being unanimously admired by Indian OTT audiences and critics alike. But again, the important thing is that Indian filmmakers should start brainstorming over finding and selecting more such brilliant books which are relatively not that popular yet have the potential of adapting them into movies or a web series without breaking the bank.
On one hand of the spectrum are bestselling books such as Amish Tripathi’s ‘Shiva Trilogy’ and most of Chetan Bhagat’s books. The first book of the genre-defining ‘Shiva Trilogy’ book series ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ is already set to be adapted into a series titled ‘Shiva’ by Shekhar Kapur and Suparn Verma. But those of you who had these books would know that making a series on them would be an expensive affair, considering the massive scale, period look, and action sequences shown in the books.
And on the other side of the spectrum are also some really well-crafted books which have immense potential to be translated to the small screen for a much lesser cost, making them a viable alternative and a profitable business model for Indian OTT platforms. Books like ‘Trial By Fire’ and ‘Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison’ have set the right precedent for Netflix, which should now focus on the untapped books-to-OTT business–content model to crack the Indian OTT market in a big way.
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