SonyLIV recently released a Malayalam horror thriller directly for streaming, the Revathi-Shane Nigam starrer, ‘Bhoothakaalam’. The film received a lot of mixed-to-positive reviews from critics and many Malayalam subscribers are lauding the performances of the lead duo, the previously mentioned Revathi and Shane Nigam. However, many others have taken to social media, asking the streaming platform to hurry up and release the Tamil and Telugu versions of these films as soon as possible. This is the third Malayalam movie to drop on SonyLIV and the OTT platform still has not provided the right subtitles or dubbed versions for the other South Indian viewers. While the other SonyLIV released Malayalam movies are available for viewing in the various South-Indian dubbed and subbed versions now – this relaxed approach of releasing the subs and dubs late will only cause more and more people to lose interest.
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar are the three biggest streaming platforms in India. Their vast libraries, production contracts with various filmmakers from both domestic & international film market and their ability to adapt are their biggest selling points in finding new subscribers and maintaining the older ones. Their ability to adapt became a major factor in India, especially for Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, when the international OTT conglomerates realised that the majority of people in each Indian state spoke a common language. And each language had its own budding language industry. Usually, when a South Indian film is dropped, they come in the original format alongside two or three dubbed versions of the other main South Indian languages (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada).
SonyLIV is trying to compete against rhe likes of the above mentioned OTT platforms. The streaming platform has dipped its fingers into multiple media pies (so to speak) including creating original Bollywood, Kollywood and Sandalwood content, streaming live sports matches and tournaments, acquiring streaming rights of various films and TV shows, etc – and has done a decent job in trying to keep up with the likes of Netflix and Hotstar. SonyLIV has recently started to premiere Malayalam films directly onto their platform and the Malayalam community has been impressed by the content. ‘Kaanekkaane’, ‘Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam’ and the aforementioned ‘Bhoothakaalam’ are all good films. This means SonyLIV has one-upped both Hotstar and Netflix, who have only released one good Malayalam movie each. However, SonyLIV’s subbing and dubbing problem will not endear itself to the rest of the South Indian community. Most would rather watch a bad film that they can understand, than not watch a film that they will never get.