US company declares holiday for GTA 6 release day: ‘Unreachable and in Vice City’
When streaming entered in India 10 years ago, it brought along with it promise. The promise of discovering new talent, both behind and in front of the camera. The promise of character development — letting the characters unravel over multiple hours of storytelling instead of condensing their arcs to two or three hours. Then there was also the promise of telling stories that otherwise rarely make it to the big screen — of an India less explored, about Indians less known, and brought to fruition by talent that’s considered too offbeat to co-exist with the mainstream.A couple of years into Indian programming, Netflix came up with Ivan Ayr’s cop drama Soni — a lived-in account of two women cops in Delhi. In many ways, it served as a palate-cleanser for Richie Mehta’s International Emmy Award-winning drama Delhi Crime, which released a couple of months later. The following year, Netflix backed Sooni Taraporewala’s film Yeh Ballet, another heartwarming indie that probably wouldn’t have found a home in the absence of the streaming platform.Even when Netflix India and its fellow OTT platforms — Amazon Prime Video India, ZEE5, and JioHotstar — were not putting their might behind indie cinema, they at least had good taste and the conviction to acquire these films, not only giving them a platform to shine, but also making them their own. But something shifted within the pandemic. One would imagine when people across the world, holed up in their homes, flocked to the television and smartphone screens, they’d watch anything and everything that’s thrown at them.
With Soni on Netflix India, came the promise of streaming platforms saving indie cinema.That’s the argument that’s put forth when one argues the crisis theatrical exhibition is undergoing since then — the audience is now more informed and exposed, thanks to the consumption of world, indie, and regional cinema on OTT, triggered by the pandemic. That’s why they don’t think twice before rejecting anything mainstream that’s substandard, leading to all-time low footfalls in cinema halls. So, are they then staying back at home and marvelling at indie gems on streaming? No. Because there aren’t too many of them that OTT platforms are championing now, as much as they used to when they first entered India. “I felt the streaming service was the answer for an independent film to find a home because indie films have never found proper distribution. I’ve done films which have found just two shows in Mumbai, and never got an adequate release. That happened initially, but now the clutter is so much that it’s difficult for a film that’s not commissioned to find a home,” Rasika Dugal told SCREEN. The actor’s indie film Fairy Folk, which released in cinemas in March 2024, hasn’t found a streaming platform yet despite her reputation as a leading OTT star with shows like Mirzapur and Delhi Crime. As she pointed out, the “clutter” is a major hurdle. After OTT giants witnessed what India, a population of 1.48 billion, can do to its subscription and viewership numbers sitting at home during the pandemic, the mandate shifted from carving out a niche in the country to conquering the nation’s voluminous masses. Acquisition of tentpole films helped further, since they couldn’t find a theatrical release during the pandemic. As a result, streaming became the only go-to distribution channel for films big and small. And we all know who comes out on top in that face-off between David and Goliath. Want an OTT release? Go to the theatres first So, then streaming platforms devised a new criteria for choosing films for acquisition — a qualifying theatrical release first, the performance of which would determine whether you get acquired or not, on what terms, and most crucially, at what price. For reference, when Netflix India acquired Chaitanya Tamhane’s 2020 Marathi film The Disciple, it was one of the most accomplished indie films in recent memory, winning key awards at both the Venice International Film Festival a
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