With Coronovirus having shut down theaters for six months (at least), film makers have turned to OTT platforms and VOD services, to release their material. This is old news. But with OTTs being the primary source of entertainment, it has been difficult for subscribers (and other “entities”) to monitor what they would be viewing.
True many OTT companies have agreed to do self-regulation in India and some have even signed the regulation draft by the government. This allows OTTs to continue as they have already but with a 10 second video ahead of every film, TV show, documentary or otherwise, telling the type of content that will be showing – be it for children or adults, featuring nudity, explicit language, gore or otherwise.
The Central Government and Supreme Court are going to take some time before they give their final verdict, but everything points towards establishing an independent committee, just for regulating online content. In a perfect world, there should be virtually no changes except for the delay of 2 to 3 days for the certification from the board.
But this is India. We have issues when regional or religious based topics (alone) come on screen, while not even counting abusive language. But scantily clad women (and men nowadays as well) dancing to sexist songs, pass the censor board under a U rating (U rating – for all audiences). This disparity has to be immediately changed, with a set of rules and regulations to be properly determined to take care of this drastic “face-palm situation”.
So first, having a proper board to monitor the content would be apt. Next would be to increase the number of rating types from 3 to atleast 5 (there is a 4th one – but that is for scientists/doctors). U, A and AU are fine, but we need censures for YA (15+) and even some PG15 for some content. Since all of this is online and not for theatrical releases, content makers shouldn’t be making a fuss about this whole situation. OTT platforms will still continue to put up the content while users will continue to watch said content.
Plus if this happens, most OTT platforms shouldn’t have much issues with these guidelines. Sure it might be a little restrictive or time-consuming but it will be an “overall good”, when done correctly. Parents will be able to monitor the content their children can watch (some adult content will be better suited for YA then others), while the people who prefer not to watch adult content can also be forewarned before viewing any video on these streaming platforms.
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