Amazon Prime Video is a hot potato right now for all good and bad reasons. Whether it is the ‘Tandav‘ imbroglio, ever growing demand for ‘The Family Man’ Season 2 trailer, Oscar feat for Suriya’s ‘Soorarai Pottru’ or the most recent release date announcement of Vijay’s blockbuster ‘Master’ within weeks of its theatrical release.
Did you notice that the above listed titles include Hindi and regional titles in equal measure? Even if you didn’t earlier, you have now and it very well signifies how Prime Video has almost mastered the management of its Indian content slate, despite being a global streaming giant.
The way Prime Video India specifically targets the regional and Hindi audience is something to take note of here. On observing the recent titles that came up on Amazon Prime recently and in the past 1-2 years, one point that stands out is that its the films in the regional market and web shows in the Hindi market that do the job most effectively and efficiently for the OTT platform.
For instance, we have numerous film titles in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada on Prime like Ponmagal Vandhal, Penguin, Sufiyam Sujatayum, C U Soon, Halal Love Story, Middle Class Melodies, V, Maara, Putham Pudhu Kaalai, Gatham, Nishabdham, Mane Number 13, Bheemasena Nalamaharaja, French Biryani and many more.
But when it comes to Hindi content on Amazon Prime, it’s the web series that have worked better for the platform. Take for example, Mirzapur (season 1 & 2), Breathe (season 1 & 2), Mind The Malhotras, Panchayat, Paatal Lok, Made In Heaven, Four More Shots Please (season 1 & 2), Inside Edge (season 1 & 2), Bandish Bandits, Tandav, The Family Man, etc.
One has to give credit to the behind the scenes team of Prime Video India, who did not just recognise this system of what works where in India early on but also came up with back to back titles to keep the respective audiences engaged throughout. And to say that they have done the job pretty well wouldn’t be an exaggeration.