The OTT space in India is growing like never before. With the theatres operating in half of their capacities, people now turn to the streaming platforms to get their regular dose of entertainment. The pandemic, which shows no sign of abatement any time soon, has made viewers more accustomed and reliable on OTT space. No wonder, we have now nearly 40 streaming platforms in India who have created a niche for themselves. From regional contents, documentaries and short-films to international movies, online streaming services have enabled audiences to explore new cultures through diverse contents.
Content creators in several regional languages like Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Bengali have managed to take their slices of the pie. However, filmmakers, back home, are yet to catch up with the OTT boom. Sunday POST talked to a few filmmakers, actors and a couple of local OTT services providers to ascertain the reasons behind the lack of visibility of Odia content on OTT space.
On Odia films’ lack of visibility on streaming platforms, acclaimed filmmaker Amartya Bhattacharya, whose two films Khyanikaa -The Lost Idea, and Capital I were on Amazon Prime worldwide, says, “I think it has to do with the policies of OTT services providers. In India, Amazon Prime supports only nine Indian languages, and Odia is not among them. I can only hope that major OTT platforms become a little more welcoming to all languages, especially to Odia, a classical language of India. I am sure the OTT platforms have a good market in Odisha and the Odia speaking community, so it should not be too difficult for them to keep their doors open.”
“I am very hopeful that Odia films will soon be seen on major OTT platforms, not just across the world, but also here in India,” concluded an optimistic Amartya.
Documentary filmmaker Pranab Kumar Aich, who has about 30 national and international awards to his name, says the films made these days lack quality content which is a major reason they aren’t picked by the streaming platforms.
Besides, most OTT platforms are looking at bigger markets and Odia films are not up to their expectations. Not too many subscribers also seek Odia movies as they are skeptical about Odia content creators’ ability to churn out good content. Even the Odia subscribers prefer to watch popular cinema of other languages than Odia, adds Aich.
Volume of production also matters a lot, believe the director of City’s Step Child.
“OTT platforms mostly look for volume of works for specific language categories which they get in Bengali and Telugu languages. Even if we make a few good content once in a while, they are not enough to meet the requirements of the streaming platforms,” says Pranab who is looking forward to release his upcoming documentary films Torch, Manayun, Nanda Master nka Chatasali and Rasagola Eka Mitha Juddha on OTT space.
Award winning filmmaker Snehasis Das is known for conveying a strong social message through his documentaries and short films like Ghar Jaana Hai, Spandanam, Kokoli and music video Mu Sei Kalinga. He says, “Meaning of original content varies from one filmmaker to another. Some filmmakers copy others’ style and content without inhibition. In the name of ‘trend’, they forget our own culture, lifestyle, and the stories of our soil. But they must understand that viewers living outside want to watch original Odia stories, not poor remake of other languages. We are unable to present genuine Odia content to the viewers even as we have the best of technicians, actors, storytellers and directors with us. As we fail to create original content, no wonder, we are not visible on streaming platforms.”
Subrajit Pradhan, producer of The Mountain Hockey which was the first ever Odia documentary film to be streamed on OTT platforms like MXPlayer and Disney +Hotstar, maintains, “The primary reason is Odia people don’t watch Odia movies at single theatres, multiplexes or through online streaming services as the content don’t excite them. Besides, giant OTT platforms always focus on content in bulk to retain their subscriber base which they don’t get in case of Odia films. This apart, when a new filmmaker tries to offer something fresh, he is always compared to his counterparts of Hindi, Telugu languages. This puts more pressure on him to deliver.”
Young minds deliver when they get the required support from the industry as well as the viewers, says Pradhan.
The success of The Mountain Hockey, which premiered in five countries including France and Germany, is a case in point.
“Some young talents from Odisha like Brajaraj, Avinash, Debasish and Raj put in their best to take Odia movies to international OTT platforms. Such Odia talents who have the passion, exposure and dreams can become the gamechangers. However, they need all round support to scale new highs,” adds Pradhan.
Actor Partha Sarathi Ray says, “Controversy erupted after Amartya Bhattacharya’s Khyanikaa was taken off air by Amazon Prime India after streaming for a day. But to be honest, Odia movies are not of that quality to be watched on streaming platforms. However, recently I have seen some good Odia projects which can be at par with other regional movies. But unfortunately they were not promoted properly. As a creative person, I feel most of the producers here do not understand the impact of good content and they don’t have the patience and energy to go to collaborators and consolidators who can pitch and take the contents to OTT platforms. However, the solution to the problem is we have to keep making quality content on a consistent basis and they have to be marketed well. There has to be a demand for Odia contents outside Odisha then only OTT platforms would think of buying them and airing them.”
He continues: “Producers here are not interested in pitching their movies to OTT platforms. They are scared they might not get their investment back. That’s the reason that they make very cheap and substandard kinds of movies and try to sell them to Odia television channels here and get their movies satellite premiere. They don’t want to release it in theaters fearing loss. But at the end of the day, quality matters. Look at what Pushpa and Spider Man did. Pushpa has collected nearly `1.2 crore from Odisha market while an Odia movie struggles to make a profit of even `10 lakh.”
What OTT services providers have to say
Prolific filmmaker and owner of OTT platform Kancha Lanka Akshay Kumar Parija says, “First of all we don’t make films in Odisha which can qualify into Netflix and Amazon standard. Second, popular OTT platforms being business-centric, they want good viewership. Unfortunately, the numbers of remake films are more than the original ones for which streaming platforms shy away from airing them. Being a proprietor of OTT platform Kancha Lanka, our motto is to stream only original movies. We also invite stories from famous writers to make movies. Our aim is to stream 24 movies in a year. So far we have made three movies with original content. Though ours is only two and half months old platform, our OTT has so far attracted record subscriptions. Though everyday filmmakers visit us asking to air their movies, we have to refuse them as we have zero tolerance towards copy-paste and remake movies.”
Kaushik Das, CEO and founder of Odisha’s first streaming platform AAO NXT, says, “Most of the Odia films lack original contents for which they are not seen on streaming platforms. In a bid to release original content, we came up with Aao Nxt in 2020. We had talks with Odia filmmakers asking them to come up with original contents so that we can stream them. However, discussion with them did not yield any results as they lacked professionalism. We are now generating our content and airing them. Much has been said about copy-paste movies. I would like to say that Hindi movies are being copied and pasted from Telugu language movies. However, the mountings of the Hindi movies are big. At times, they outshine the original films. On the other hand, the producers in Odisha end up making a substandard copy of the original film.”
Rashmi Rekha Das,OP
