Recently there has been a surge in period dramas in Bollywood and there is no doubt regarding that. What’s in vogue is the lavishly mounted sets and high scaled canvas which is being termed as the USP of period dramas nowadays. Be it Kalank set at the time of Independence or recent works of Sanjay Leela Bhansali – Bajirao Mastani, Padmaavat, or this year’s ‘Tanhaji’. All of these flicks were filled with eyegasmic visuals and scenary which wowed the audience. While majority of these period dramas are specifically made for big silver screens, people too like to flock to theatres to watch them.
But with the recent success of OTT platforms, Alt Balaji along with Zee5 are bringing the grandness which was only limited to big screens to the OTT platforms. Their upcoming series Paurashpur which is an erotic drama is looking a treat for the eyes with the beautiful and lavish setting of the fictional city of Paurashpur. Many people are touting it to be one of the most expensive shows coming from India and certainly it appears like that.
What has happened is, people are willing to take risks in the OTT space as it has come as a revolution if we speak about the contents which are there in this space. And with Paurashpur, Zee5 and Alt Balaji are looking to raise the stakes of the period drama shows.
If the show succeeds, then it will surely tempt other makers to bring something similar along the lines of the grand scales with period settings. And why do we say so? Well for the fact that bollywood is known for its mob mentality and other than that, the rival streaming platforms would definitely try to be in touch with what’s connecting with the audience.
Well for starters, if the show does taste success then it is beneficial for the OTT market and for the viewers who are a fan of these types of content. And one may never know that in the future we might be getting a high on content period show which is gripping as hell. How about an Indian version of something like Game of Thrones? Well it does sounds farfetched but one can certainly hope that Indian entertainment industry will be thinking of doing something as big as that!
It all depends on how Paurashpur on Zee5 turns out because if the show works, we’ll be seeing some or the other announcement on the similar genre in no time. But if the show doesn’t goes down well with the audience as well as the critics, then there will be a significant delay for this genre to be explored.
Paurashpur streams on Zee5 on December 29th 2020.
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