OTTs: Where Indian Filmmakers Inspire Change To Take On Taboos
Films, besides being brilliant entertainers, have been an important medium in showcasing important stories and social issues since its inception. Whether it was about a man suffering from AIDs who has been unjustly fired or the atrocities committed by slave owners in the 17th and 18th century, film (television series, animation, documentaries, short films included) has always “humanized” issues and helped create empathy towards those who have suffered.
This has been the case for films, and other forms of motion visual art, around the world, India included. We created multiple movies that inspire and embrace patriotism at a time when Indians were divided (We are creating quite a lot, recently as well). Films and television have helped bring the dalit plight and the issue of sexual assault on women, specifically rape to the international stage. We see some of the absurdities of various religious rituals when shown in a different context and multiple Indian films have helped drive that point.
But Indian filmmakers have largely stayed away from highly controversial subject matters due to fear of backlash and/or blacklisting. Release of ‘Padmaavat’ and ‘PK’ was met with heavy protests from multiple groups for various reasons, many not even included in/part of the film. Most Bollywood filmmakers slowly lost their teeth and began to create pretty much the same films, year after year, on repeat. If slight artistic liberties (it is an artform after all) face ridiculous backlash, then taboo issues such as same-sex relationships/ marriage, alcohol and drug addiction, inter-caste marriage, “Hijda communities” (consisting of abandoned children, intersex people, transgender men and women, etc.), Hindu-Muslim issues, etc. might create national wide strikes (we are only half-joking).
But now OTTs have inspired filmmakers – young and old, Bollywood and regional to tackle these various social issues and more. Mollywood and Tollywood (Bengali Film Industry) have been creating changes to the films they released, slowly, over the past few years, but with OTTs like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, Indian film makers have been allowed to tackle these important social taboos with their backing. Recently Indian bred OTTs have been doing the same.
Let us take the upcoming anthology film ‘Paava Kadhaigal’. One of the anthology films ‘Love Panna Uttranam’ tackles one of these social issues – same-sex relationships. A lot of Indian documentaries and films have been made tackling multiple LGBTQ subjects and many have been brilliant. But most of the mainstream depictions have been too “preachy” and that will not help the average Indian to either understand or change their views. Like what the film ‘Philadelphia’ did for the LGBTQ community in India, hopefully ‘Love Panna Uttranam’ will settle on humanizing the characters rather than preaching a message.
We are still a long way from being able to tackle big issues on screen but with willing companies like Apple, Disney and Netflix providing a major platform for filmmakers, the future is bright for our country.
‘Paava Kadhaigal’ will release on Netflix on December 18th, 2020.