The rise of OTT in India disrupted the entertainment industry, paving the way for the promise of a space for diverse voices, unconventional narratives, and most importantly, female-led stories that mainstream cinema had long ignored. One of the earliest female actresses to draw audiences towards female-led storytelling was Radhika Apte. Remember those days when people made and shared countless memes about her having some sort of “secret deal” with Netflix? Jokes aside, a new and baffling report from Ormax Media discloses that Hindi OTT is dangerously regressing and sidelining women’s narratives.
For every two Hindi fiction originals anchored by a woman, there are now seven centred around a man (based on data collected from 338 Hindi fiction originals released since January 1, 2022). The male-to-female protagonist ratio has surged from an imbalance of 1.4 times in 2022 to a dominant 3.5 times in 2025. This isn’t just a failure of representation. It is also a major business blunder that could fatally impact the country’s streaming industry.
The data points to an overreliance on the Action Crime Thriller (ACT) genre (43%), where protagonists are overwhelmingly male. Other prominent genres include Human Drama (26%), Feel Good (20%), and Gen Z (11%). The share of male-led projects in genres other than ACT has increased substantially since 2022, rising from 30% to nearly 52% in 2025. More baffling still is that the share of female-led properties has plummeted from 31% in 2022 to a mere 12% in 2025.
This shift suggests that platforms are commissioning content based on narrow, short-term signals and the misguided belief that male audiences offer the strongest subscription potential. However, this strategy is fundamentally flawed in the Indian market. Even if this belief were partly true, the long-term consequences could seriously damage the streaming ecosystem in the years to come.
The exclusion of female viewers poses a serious commercial threat to the Indian streaming landscape. Since women represent a large, untapped segment for growth in both subscription and ad-supported markets, alienating them directly risks subscriber stagnation and reduced engagement. This is compounded by the fact that even when men pay for subscriptions, renewal decisions are typically made jointly within households.
Furthermore, an excessive focus on male-led stories leads to content homogenisation, diminishing a platform’s ability to stand out in an increasingly competitive market. This narrowed approach is especially ill-suited to the rapidly expanding Connected TV (CTV) space, where co-viewing is on the rise. Platforms must pivot towards more inclusive storytelling to align with this family-oriented viewing culture.
The challenge for key OTT players in India is clear: they must look beyond the immediate success of male-led crime thrillers and actively invest in the full spectrum of Human Drama, Feel Good, and Gen Z stories that only strong female voices can authentically deliver. The future growth of Hindi OTT depends not on how many male-led shows they can produce, but on how boldly they embrace the diversity they once promised. Stay tuned for more updates.
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