Prime Video’s Aparna Purohit on the business of content, what 2023 brought & 2024 has in store

Aparna Purohit, head of Originals, India & Southeast Asia, Prime Video.

Not many may know, but, of the top 10 highest-rated Indian streaming shows on IMDb to date, six are from Prime Video — Mirzapur, The Family Man, Breathe, Panchayat, Aspirants and Paatal Lok. And that too, in just the last seven years of this platform’s journey in India. In 2023, Amazon Prime Video released 25 original shows and plans to surge ahead this coming year. In an exclusive email interview with Aparna Purohit, head of Originals, India and Southeast Asia, Prime Video, we discuss the business of content, their strategies, what to look forward to in 2024 and more:

What can we expect in the New Year on Prime Video? Will original content be given more priority? 

Our slate for the next 12-18 months is power-packed with Hindi Original series such as Rohit Shetty’s highly anticipated Indian Police Force starring Siddharth Malhotra. We also have Call Me Bae. Citadel’s India chapter that is being created by the dynamic duo Raj & DK and has Samantha Ruth Prabhu and our own Prime bae, Varun Dhawan, in lead roles.

We will also bring to the service our sixth Original movie starring Sara Ali Khan — Ae Watan Mere Watan, to the service. In the pipeline are theatrical co-productions with two forthcoming films with Dharma — Yodha and an untitled film starring Vicky Kaushal.

We will continue to expand our Originals content slate with shows, movies, unscripted content in Hindi as well as Tamil and Telugu languages. Consumers will also be treated to some of the most anticipated international movies and shows from Amazon MGM studios — from Foe — a science fiction psychological thriller, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Road House, Lu Lu Wang’s Expats, there is a lot lined-up.

The Indian entertainment landscape has gone through a remarkable transformation in the past few years. Tell us about the business of content.

India is heterogeneous, with diversity in language, culture, entertainment preferences, making programming for our local consumers a challenge as well as an opportunity. Our country is home to 22 official languages written in 13 different scripts, with 12 languages having more than 30MM speakers each!  Fair to say that the one-size-fits-all approach or center-of-plate content offerings no longer applies. At Prime Video, we adopt a tailored strategy, considering a variety of cohorts and programs for each demographic individually. Our segmentation factors include age, language, region, customer tenure, and more. Whether on living room devices or catering to our mobile-first customers, this approach enables us a personalised service that resonates with every viewer.

Viewers today have become more discerning in their choices, seeking content that reflects their unique tastes and preferences. The appetite for variety is palpable, transcending all boundaries of genre, language, and format, spanning both local and international territories. Consumers are more open to experimentation and willing to venture out of the comfort of familiarity, in their search of good stories.

Amazon Prime launched many original shows in 2023. In the last seven years how has the journey been?

As a customer-focused organisation, we have been building our content slate to meet the diverse entertainment needs of our customers. In fact, in 2023 itself, we have launched 25 originals, the highest that we have launched in a year ever since we started out in India. Our expansive content portfolio spans a wide spectrum of genres and formats. Kicking off 2023 with a quirky crime thriller Farzi, we continued to captivate our audience with a range of offerings such Jubilee, a compelling period drama, Happy Family Conditions Apply, a delightful family comedy and Dahaad, an intense crime drama among others. This year, our commitment to diverse storytelling extended to unscripted shows like Cinema Marte Dum Tak, Dancing on The Grave, AP Dhillon: First of a Kind, Rainbow Rishta, First Act, Mission Start Ab, and more. The expansion also reached our regional audience, introducing our first long format Telugu original Dhootha, along with Tamil originals like The Village and Sweet Kaaram Coffee. Additionally, we also launched original movies like Tiku Weds Sheru and Mast Mein Rehne Ka and ending the year with Dry Day.

Language is no longer a barrier. Since we first entered the Indian market almost 7 years ago, we have been deeply committed to super-serving our incredibly diverse nation. Prime Video in India programs content in 10 languages, the highest for any Prime Video locale globally. With our extensive multilingual and multi-genre library customers are embracing a newfound freedom to explore, discover and enjoy content in multiple languages. Today, over 60 per cent of the customers on Prime Video stream content in four or more languages, and 50 per cent viewership of local language content comes from outside the home states.  This shift underscores a significant and an exciting evolution in viewers preferences, reaffirming our commitment to delivering a truly diverse and accessible entertainment experience.

Indian content is breaching global shores while international content is doing well in India. Please comment.

Indian content has garnered a global following, with 25 per cent audience for Indian Originals coming from outside India. Our local Originals have seamlessly become a part of the cultural milieu and zeitgeist. I am happy to share that Indian content trended in the Top 10 on Prime Video worldwide for 47 of the last 52 weeks, securing 15 per cent of the total Top 10 slots. This underscores the significant and consistent success of Indian stories on the global stage. Illustrating this success is the example of Farzi. Released in 37 languages globally, the series was streamed by viewers on Prime Video in over 170 countries and territories within the launch weekend alone. With a high IMDb rating of 8.7, the thriller scaled a global milestone as it entered the top 10 trending titles lists on Prime Video in multiple countries and territories around including India, U.S., UK, Canada, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia. The show’s success is not limited to its global reach; it has been applauded by viewers worldwide for its fast-paced and edgy narration, high-production values and genre-defining performances. In fact, it features at No. 8, in the top traveling non-English local originals in the history of the service.

Made In Heaven Season 2, is another example of a show that scaled a global milestone over the launch weekend as it entered the top 10 trending titles lists on Prime Video in over 20 countries including US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia, among others. Jubilee, our Original series won 13 awards over the year, across platforms and categories, including Best Series at the International Film Festival of Melbourne 2023. Modern Love Chennai won the Best Single Drama/Telemovie/Anthology Episode at this year's Asian Academy Creative Awards, making history as the first Tamil series to do so. Earlier in 2023 we announced that the Indian titles released as a part of this year’s Prime Day line-up were watched by viewers in over 230 countries and territories! This includes original series like Jee Karda, Adhura, Sweet Kaaram Coffee, post-theatrical licensed films like Veeran, Anni Manchi Sakunamule, PS II Hindi, and original movie Tiku Weds Sheru. At Prime Video, we are also actively trying to promote our local, shows and movies not just in India, but across the world. Bawaal for example had its global trailer launch in Dubai, while Bambai Meri Jaan, had its world premiere in London.

Through streaming, movies, whether post-theatrical or direct-to-streaming premieres, are reaching a much wider audience than before. For instance, post theatrical licensed movies, including Pathaan, Jailer, Ponniyin Selvan: I and 2, and Rocky aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani, to name a few, have been immensely enjoyed by our customers. Also, our DTS (Digital Theatre System) titles like Shershaah, Sardar Udham, Jai Bhim, Bawaal and most recently, Pippa has been appreciated by audiences globally.

In this business of content, things are not limited to only originals and licensed content, but it is also ensuring that customers have more choice and easy access to content. What is your content strategy?

The customer serves as our guiding star, steering our content strategy, which is built backwards from what our customers enjoy watching. Our commitment is unwavering — we are dedicated to creating and curating the best entertainment experience for them. Our endeavor is to offer them a rich and diverse content slate where every piece of content we put on our service, becomes someone’s favorite story, a principle that echoes throughout the content we create and curate. From a spy thriller like The Family Man to a musical like Bandish Bandits, from an intense crime heartland drama like Mirzapur to Four More Shots Please, a show about female friendships set in an urban milieu, we truly believe that we have worked towards building a service that appeals to all of India, transcending geographical and linguistic boundaries.

We call ourselves story-chasers, and believe that great stories can come from anywhere! While we believe good stories can come from anywhere, there are some key tenets that guide our decision-making. The most important being authenticity. We want to tell authentic stories that are truly rooted in our soil. Amidst the multitude of stories available today, customers want to watch something that is relatable. And the only way to cut across the noise is to tell authentic, honest stories, instead of borrowing something that has been told before. Consider our period drama Jubilee, for instance, where meticulous world building captures the authenticity and the passion of its creators in every frame. Similarly, Suzhal — The Vortex unfolds against the backdrop of a specific local festival or Panchayat that is completely set in a village. And yet, each of them is relatable, authentic, thereby enjoying worldwide popularity. This is the reason behind the stupendous success of our shows and movies. A noteworthy example is Panchayat Season 2, which recently won the inaugural Best Web Series (OTT) Award at the International Film festival of India, 2023. This recognition for a show set in a fictional village speaks volumes about the universal appeal of authenticity transcending language and regional boundaries and making it a fan favorite not just in India but around the world.

Second, we want to be enablers and want to back creators on their passion projects. We hand-hold them through workshops, access to resources, international consultants, etc.

Third aspect of our approach involves commitment to investing time and other resources in the development process. We believe in meticulous character development where every character, irrespective of screen-time, is endowed with a well-defined story arc. This requires time and investment, and we don’t shy away from it either. As a home for talent, we believe in casting for the characters. This has led to characters being the new stars, such as Srikant Tiwari, Hathi Ram, Kaleen Bhaiyya, Anjali Bhaati. This approach has helped us hone and develop new talent.  In fact, almost 50 per cent of our released and forthcoming slate has new talent — both in front of and behind the camera. And this investment in the creative economy has helped the entire ecosystem, a testament to the exciting times unfolding for both audiences and creators alike.