And There has been a shower of remakes and adaptations of foreign content in India recently. With ‘The Good Wife‘, ‘Aarya‘, ‘Criminal Justice‘, ‘Bloody Brothers‘ and many more the Indian web market is constantly getting saturated with remakes. “There’s so much demand for premium content, and everybody wants it fast, so formats become an easy turnaround for the streamers,” explains Sameer Gogate, head of BBC Studios India’s production business. This is why the abroad distribution of this huge number of shows is difficult where the original English version is available. “The U.S. is always a big challenge, although you want your Hindi content in that market, because there’s a massive Indian diaspora sampling those shows,” says Dhar.
Even original Indian materials are unlikely to be syndicated in the international market because their streamers have a global footprint and can scoop up worldwide rights . Applause Entertainment financed Scam 1992 then sold it to Sony Liv. This is a model that can be followed. SK Global did the same with Delhi Crime.
The big format companies are starting to make original content too. “We’re building out a bunch of shows we feel could really travel outside of India, because while we’re blessed with the Banijay catalogue, with the growth of streaming, we think it’s time to start developing Hindi IP.” Freemantle and BBC Studios India are also planning to make shows with original Indian content. Endemol Shine India wrapped a series based on ‘Trial By Fire’.
“There’s still high demand for premium content, as the audience has tasted blood, but some level of consolidation and price rationalization is likely to happen,” says Gogate. Indie producers and talent agents say there are only four buyers to pitch big-budget shows to which are Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ Hotstar and SonyLiv.
Achieving scale is one big deal too. “If you develop three or four shows, there is a high probability a few may not get sold, and the cost will not be balanced out by profits from all of the others. Even if you sell them all, the markup is only around 10%, and that’s what you get without the risk of funding them. The IP might come back to you in 10 to 15 years, but is that really worth the risk?” Sameer Nair says, “We want to do more adventurous and ambitious projects, and partner with more global co-producers, companies out of LA, London and Israel who are active in co-productions.”
There are difficulties for Indian web content makers globally. But they can be overcome by logical planning of the producers and streaming platforms. India has lagged behind the other countries in terms of producing global OTT hits for a long time. But with shows like Delhi Crime and Scam 1992 there is quite a change. A change in strategies and focusing more on original stories from India will make a massive change in the industry.