Maryam Farooqui Moneycontrol News
What if Radhika Apte gets nominated this year in the Best Actress Category at the 64th Filmfare – not for PadMan or Andhadhun but for Netflix's Lust Stories. What if Pankaj Tripathi wins the National award for his role in Amazon Prime's Mirzapur?
These possibilities have opened up since the time Netflix’s Roma made it big at the 91st Academy Awards. The Alfonso Cuarón film has bagged awards in the Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Language categories.
While the film faced flak for even entering the Oscars and has not been received well by many, especially exhibitors, it has turned out to be a game changer for the film industry. And not just internationally, in India as well. This is because filmmakers are hopeful that something like this might happen in India anytime soon.
Talking to Moneycontrol, Shrenik Gandhi, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, White Rivers Media, said, “This will give birth to a new generation of cinematographers, directors who were kind of apprehensive with the power of digital video content. It gives them a ray of hope. It is a given fact that every director in the industry has been creative. The kind of quantity of supply side of video content has exploded while the demand has also exploded.”
He is confident that “this year or by next year the categories across mainstream awards will be pure OTT (Over The Top)-based categories. There will be categories for that certainly. Even mainstream actors are featuring in the OTT space so there’s no reason why there will be no category for them”.
Hanish Bhatia, Senior Analyst (devices and ecosystem) Counterpoint, gave the example of Radhika Apte-starrer Ghoul. “In case of Ghoul, a Netflix original, it was decided at the very last moment that it will be released on the digital platform. Netflix had given a significantly higher bid for the licensing rights of Ghoul, after which it was decided that Ghoul will not be released on other channels and that it will be a Netflix exclusive.”
According to Gandhi, it is the growth and intense competition in the OTT space that is resulting in more and better content. “There were eight players in the OTT space in 2015 which has gone up to 32 now. It has grown by 200 percent. Alt Balaji has 100 shows in production,” he said.
A report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimates that the OTT market in India will grow to be $5 billion by 2023. The market currently stands at $0.5 billion.
The factors for this growth include rising affluence, increase in penetration of data into rural markets and adoption across demographic segments including women and older generations, the report said.
Despite the growth in the OTT space, both the television and film industry face no threat.
A recent Elara Capital report on media and entertainment industry says that the exhibition segment is not expected to have a negative impact due to digital as the occupancy rate is already low – 25 percent for pan-India multiplex chains.
Further, the screen density in India remains lower than in the US and China, until then, the exhibition segment will enjoy healthy growth.
Bhatia explained, "In India, OTT is definitely growing. But the audience base for watching the movies which are put forth in the mainstream is definitely very wide and broad as compared to OTT as they have limited users.”
He added that most of the new content that comes in is only for premium users. It is not free.
Giving the example of Sacred Games, Bhatia said that while Netflix original was both critically acclaimed and loved by the viewers, the audience for it was limited.
“If the content is not reaching a wider audience I am not sure if it can be considered for an award or not. However, the market is growing so you never know,” Bhatiya added.
For Gandhi, the comparison between OTT and theatres is “essentially the concept of private theatre versus public theatre”.
“If you look at the theatre/cinema industry, in the last one or two years, they are trying to become places that offer an experience. For instance, PVR Icon or even Inox t are made larger than life because they are promoting themselves as 'experience centres'. You cannot have that experience on your phone. For instance, people would prefer watching a movie like Baahubali on the big screen,” he said.
He also believes that people opt for private theatre to avoid being judged. “There’s always a fear of judgement when people go to theatres. You feel free to watch more content online on your phone and that is why it is more engaging.”
While the three major platforms television, cinema and OTTs will coexist in India, the brokerage report points out that OTT giants will aggressively pursue new audience.
As platforms like Netflix and Amazon are ready to take risks, there is a rush in the market for new content. Hence, there is a demand for creative producers. This means that the quality of subjects will only improve leading to it finding recognition in major Indian awards no matter what platform they are released on.
Hence, OTTs do have a chance to see themselves in the competition for Indian awards, otherwise, "it will be a missed opportunity if there will be no category,” believes Gandhi.
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