We have often heard that ‘change is the only constant’ and it truly is universally applicable. OTT platforms brought that change when talking about the type of content and viewing experience, specially among the Indian audience.
Before OTT, the two major source of video entertainment were television and cinema. Their duopoly ruled for decades but the newbie streaming services just altered the way it all worked, not only because of lockdown but otherwise too.
One of the major reasons why OTT platforms have been able to create a strong hold in the market is because they are supplying what is in demand and that is – intelligent and unique content, something that both television and cinema are unable to offer.
Now they have had their reasons for not being able to provide extreme or controversial content as they are bounded by rules and regulations such as complying with family viewing norms, government censorships et al. On the flip side, OTTs have been free from any such major boundations until now.
Going back to intelligent and unique content, it is not just the demand but also the need of the hour. The audience has become smarter and it is not much interested in viewing some poorly constructed predictable plot that is often available on daily soaps on TV.
Though we have many well made films out there but the issue where OTTs surpass films is the abundance and frequency of such content on these video streaming services. What we mean here is that OTT platforms are consistently working on the front of bringing clever content in the form of both series and films, while only a couple of such films (or sometimes not even that) come out in a year where you find that brilliance.
Consider, Indian web series like SonyLIV’s ‘Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story’, Netflix’s ‘Sacred Games’, Amazon Prime Video’s ‘Mirzapur’, ‘Paatal Lok’, ‘The Family Man’, ‘Panchayat’ and many more where the Indian audience got to see something fresh, crisp and brainy after a very long time. Moreover, the series format further helped the makers overcome the challenge of making complex stories understandable through certain small but important nuances, which would otherwise have been difficult to show in a film, given the time limitation.
Apart form all this, when makers present a sophisticated or perplexed content and the audience not just receives it well but also applauds it wholeheartedly, it goes on to show how the viewers have progressed overall and are no more willing to be served with some stale story.
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