Streaming giant Prime Video India announced its new slate at a star-studded event in Mumbai yesterday. However, despite announcing 69 new titles yesterday, Prime Video left a sizeable section of its Indian subscribers extremely disappointed.
Reason – no Malayalam content; not a single measly title for Prime Video’s Malayalam subscribers! And this when a huge 29% of titles — or 20 titles out of the total 69 announced yesterday — were in Tamil, Telugu and one Kannada.
So may we ask, why the bias against Malayalam language?
Malayalam movies are leading Indian cinema like never before. Tamil and Telugu content is vegetating in mediocrity currently – dawdling in the pits. Likewise for Kannada content. A hit or two for these industries this year doesn’t make a difference. The first three months of 2024 alone have proved that Malayalam cinema rules the hearts of the nation.
Yet when it comes to OTT platforms, Malayalam cinema continues to receive stepmotherly treatment from the top OTTs. Disney Plus Hotstar is making an effort to change the equation. Sony LIV is not far behind.
But Prime Video India and Netflix are simply not bothered. They continue to turn a blind eye to the needs of their Malayalam subscribers. And quite blatantly so.
It won’t be long before it’s an eye for an eye for Prime Video and Netflix from their Malayalam followers, and they unfollow these two biased platforms forever!